I was watching a circus performance on TV and I can’t help but think of Honghong. She passed away at the age of 6 at home.

Her parents brought their 4 children to watch a real-life circus performance, 2 days after the fun-filled day, the accident happened.

According to her other siblings, the 4 children were pretending to be circus performers. Honghong was trying to try out one of the act seen at the performance. The one where the performer held on to a rope using the just his mouth and turned himself round and round in mid-air.

As the performer is so high up in the air, the performer may have looked like he hang the rope over his neck. And that was what Honghong did at home.

According to her younger sister,5, Honghong climbed up her double-deck bed, somehow managed to get the rope tied onto the dangling ceiling lamp. Then put the rope round her neck and let go of her footage on the double-deck bed. That was how she ‘hanged’ herself.

She was the eldest child in the family, an obedient daughter, a caring sister. She died in 1990.

As parents, its important to explain what they see to them, The dangerous acts in circus, death-defying stunts, violence on seen on TV programmes….To children, they may not ‘see’ the danger and would often learn to imitate. To them these acts may seem just as harmless as imitating their parents way of speaking.

The death of Honghong always reminds me of the simplicity of a child’s mind. Do you have similar stories to share?