My son asked whether heaven has visiting hours

Dear Delyara, My son is five. His grandmother died last week. Tonight, while I was brushing his teeth, he asked whether heaven has visiting hours. I told him no. He asked how people see their families there. I said I did not know. He became annoyed with me because adults are supposed to know the rules. Then he asked whether we could drive there on Saturday because Saturdays are when we used to visit Grandma. I sat on the bathroom floor with a toothbrush in my hand and realized every explanation I had prepared for death depended on words a five-year-old had no use for. Gone. Forever. Spirit. Memory. None of them answer the practical question of why a person who was available every Saturday has suddenly become impossible to reach. I told him we could visit her grave. He said, “But she’s not there either, right?” I said right. He frowned and asked why we would go. I had no answer that satisfied either of us. Later, I found him putting two toy cars into his backpack. He said one was for Grandma in case we figured out where visiting hours are. I let him pack both.