[Christien]

My wife's grandmother died just a couple months ago. Our girls are 4 and 2 and both knew her as well as they could at that age - spent lots of time with her, etc. Our youngest of course is too young to understand, but our 4-year-old had to have it explained to her. I think it's actually easier at that age than maybe 5 or 6, because they're old enough to understand some of it, but not really emotionally aware enough to feel a sense of pain and loss. So now she understands what death is, and that it means you're gone forever, which will hopefully make the next loss a bit easier for her.