people

When I first learned about the concept of death, I also learned that a common cause of death is old age. I thought "I'm getting older... oh my god - I'm gonna die soon!" I was so scared until I relised that I had alot more time to go before I would die of old age.

Anon

When I was about 4 or so, I didn't really understand death. (But what 4 year old does?) I knew that the person went to heaven, but that was about it. I thought their body would just one day disapear and they would be in heaven. Well, one day, my mom had to go in early to work. (My mom was always around in the morning when I woke up.) When I got up, I went into my parents bedroom to see (to my horror) my mom's side empty. I fell on the floor and started crying so loud I woke up my dad. I was screaming "mommy's gone! mommy's gone!" but then my dad picked me up and said "it's ok, remember, she went to work early today." then i wiped my tears and said "...she did?" and my dad said "yep." and I was just so grateful that my mom wasn't dead.

Brianne

i was 5 when my folks brought me to my first funeral. we went to the wake the night before as well. i thought they called it an "awake" which i thought was pretty rude considering the person was dead and couldnt wake up.

kj

My mother's father died when she was 13. Before I reached that age I was afraid of turning 13, thinking I would lose my Dad, too.

Berni

When I was 3 or 4 years old, I used to believe the moon was my dead grand-mother and if I was not nice she would come punish me.

Kéké 401

When I was 4 i belived that people just dropped dead for no reason what so ever. I would imagine my self walking down to the pool and just falling over. I have no idea where that came from.

drop dead

I used to think that when you died in the hospital, two nurses would take your body outside on a stretcher, put you down on the lawn, and watch as you floated up to Heaven.

AJ

When I was a child, I was scared of dying--so much so, that I would check my heart every few minutes to make sure it was still beating. I didn't realize that if it wasn't, I'd have already been dead.

MW

My Grandmother died at our home when I was 9, I believed her ghost would rush out at me unless I ran really fast past her bedroom at night afterwards.
I was really glad when we moved house because her ghost would not be able to come with me to the new house.

Brenda

I used to have a cat and my parents put a flea collar on the cat. When I asked what it did my mom told me it was posion and any flea that touched it would died. She also told me if I touched it I would get posion on my hands and I must wash them right away. Being a child, I knew posion meant death and, not wanting to die, I spent many years of my life running to a sink after petting my cat so I wouldn't be posioned.

Anon

When I was 5 or 6, I believed that my sisters and I would die in the order that we were born. When I would get into an argument with my older sister, I would tell her "You are going to die 3 years before me" to "tick" her off. I, also, had a younger sister. So when I got into an argument with her, I realized I was screwed because I was going to die 2 years before her. At the time, it sounded "logical" to me.

Rachel

When I was little, my mom told me that I was going to get a shot, like a vaccine. I didn't grasp the difference between getting shot and getting A shot. I think that's why I'm so quiet now. I thought I was going to die.

Anonymous

My grandpa died of lung cancer, and when I was little I thought smoking was when part of your body...smoked literally...I thought his lungs smoked so much they fell apart

Anon

I thought that if you took a drink out of the drinking fountain at the cemetary, blood would come out of the faucet.

Alison Wonderland

I used to believe that my Grandad died as a result of showing off to my Grandma one day on holiday in Scotland. My Grandma was sitting in a boat on a lake and my Grandad tried to jump from an overhanging cliff into the boat to impress her. He nearly made it, but caught his leg on the side of the boat, broke his leg and died. It was only a few months ago that I realised that this story is a mix of several different family stories that I had obviously overheard while very young, with a healthy measure of pure fantasy. He actually died of a heart attack, which is much less inetersting....

Rachboc

I used to believe that when you died your body would kinda crack open in a line over head down your shoulders and arms and so on for the blood to get out. I have no idea where I got that idea from.

Kimberly

When I was about 7/8, the long-running UK TV soap, Coronation Street, showed one of the elderly characters, Martha Longhurst, sip a glass of "milk stout" in the pub, take off her spectacles and promptly die with her head in her hands.
For years after, I always feared that, if an old-ish person removed their spectacles, they would be dead soon after.

Steve D

As a Methodist child I learned that people were sent to be angels when they died. (My nan's dog became an angel-dog too.)
So when I saw paintings and statues of cherubs and Eros, I found them disturbing because to me they were dead babies and children- very spooky indeed.

Carla

I used to believe that if you counted the number of cars in a funeral procession that someone in your family would soon die.

Sid

I was at a museum with dad once and we was these skeletons. i thought people cut off the dead peoples noses after they died!

Anon