September 13, 1986

Twenty five years ago yesterday, it was reported to a five year old kid that his father had died.

Regardless of the conventional "truth" in that report, i.e. whether or not it was true that a man had died, is not relevant, for the five year old no longer had a father.

What would "closure" provide in this case? Might closure "provide" something?

What would the realization that it was not true, do?

I believe that a parent's singular task is to provide their children with the opportunity to do more than they did. If there was a secondary task, it would be for the parent to encourage their child to do more than they did, in addition with providing them the opportunity. Whether that kid did more than his father did is not known, but he definitely had the opportunity.