Eric the Red

My six year old daughter Emmy at dinner tonight asked if I still have friends from school.  After clarifying with her, I understood what she was asking.  She has friends in her elementary school and she wants to know if she'll always be friends with these people and she is asking me if I still have friends from those days.  I named some friends of mine that I still have and then I told her about Eric and told her that he died this summer.  

Funny thing about six year olds.  She felt no need to ask why he died.  She related it to something she learned about in school recently -- she said, "His name is like Leif Ericson."  She has learned about him in school recently.  My daughter related Eric to a viking.  My friend would have liked this, I think... and laughed a good laugh.  "Yeah," I said, "He's more like Eric the Red because he had red hair."  She then replied, "Eric the Red was Leif's father."  The discussion was over from her standpoint.

But it made me think about Eric loving viking stories, books, and movies growing up.  He still liked them at 34.  When I think of him in his childhood he is always Eric the Red, adventurer, make-believe sailor and soldier -- definitely a bit of the old viking spirit and a foreshadowing of his life as a marine.