In lieu of the usual Show-and-Tell, the third-grade teacher decided to ask the children to share a little Family Information. “What does your Daddy or Mommy do?” was the question of the day, and one by one, the children stood up and talked about the various Parental Occupations:

“My Mommy works in the library.”

“My Daddy is a fireman.”

“My Daddy is a lawyer.”

“My Daddy is a dentist. He fixes people’s teeth.”

After this had gone on for a while, the teacher noticed little Jimmy, who sat very quietly by himself in the back of the classroom, looking morose. She tried to draw him in to the class discussion. “Jimmy, can you tell us what your Daddy does?”

Jimmy stood up reluctantly. “My Daddy died last year.”

What could the teacher say?

“Oh, that’s a shame, Jimmy. Before he died, what did your Daddy do?”

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“Oh, he turned blue and shit on the rug.”