One day, on the way to a funeral, our car passed the cemetary where most of my family is buried. My mother quietly mentioned "That's where I want to be buried when I die." My 4-year-old brother looked shocked and started crying/screaming "You're going to die?! I don't want you to die." My mom then tried comforting him by saying, "Honey, everybody dies eventually." My little brother started screaming hysterically, "I'm going to die? We're all going to die?" Eventually, we all just decided that death is not to be discussed in the presence of my brother.

Cassandra

When my sister and I were young we used to believe that in order to be dead your tongue had to be hanging out. No exceptions.

Mel

when passing a cemetary my dad said, "do you know what all those flowers are for?"
"no"
"under each flower is a dead body"

my mom protested: "don't tell her that!"
i assumed she was yelling at him for lying to me as he often did, so i didn't believe him.

optional

I used to believe that the dark spots on sidewalks were the remains of people who had been struck by lightning. I tried very hard to avoid stepping on those spots when walking down the street.

Buzz

I once believed that when people died it was because the sandman had put too much sand in their eyes and they just couldn't wake up.

lillie

When I was a little kid I believed that everyone's heart in my family beat at the same time. I thought that if one of us died we would feel their heart stop beating.

Belle O'Cosity

When I was little I thought if you had a dream about falling that if you hit the ground you'd die instantly from heart attack.

Christine A.W.

When I was around the age of seven I recall the television report outlining the life and death of the actor who played Ronald McDonald. I was terrified because before I heard this I never thought anybody I knew would actually die, and I felt as if I knew Ronald. For the next couple of years I feared death and thought for sure I would die in my sleep.

raceystacy

I used to believe that if you jumped over somebody lying on the ground, your mom would die unless you jumped them again the opposite way.

J.C.

I thought that you could stop your heart and die if you hit yourself on the chest hard enough. This of course made me fear for the life of anybody impersonating Tarzan or a Gorilla of some sort.

Maud Flanders UK

i used to think when people died and when they were in the coffin at church they would suddenly sit up in the coffin everyone would clap and everyone would be happy

Anna

I used to believe that guns shot out blood because everytime somebody shot a gun in a movie you saw blood.

Anon

When my great grandfather died I was about 4 or 5. My family never attened curch before so I didn't exactly know how to pray. So I am told I 'taguht' my younger cousins how to pray. I had told them to put thier hands together and spin around in circles and speak loudly. We had done this right in front of his coffin. I really didn't know what death was at the time. I thought he was asleep and we were trying to wake him up. I feel really bad about that now.

Anti-chinchilla

I used to think that when people died they didn't really die they just left home and travelled around the world until they found another family they liked and settled down with them. I was quite insulted that no dead people decided to live with us!

Jez

I used to believe that when people died everyone could see them floaing up to heaven. I used to hope I would die, so that I could enjoy the view of my hometown.

Ella G

When I was young I saw kids going "I'm dead!" whenever they died in some
stupid imaginary game, and from then on until I was about 7, I thought that
was what people said when they die, no matter what situation they were in,
or how they died.

Psycho Kitty Bob

When I was 3 I thought grown-ups were lying to us about going to heaven. I finally asked my pre-school teacher, "If we are supposed to go to heaven when we die, why do they put us in the ground with the devil?"

Amber

I used to believe that the more you talked, the sooner you would die. Needless to say, I was a quiet kid.

Lisa

I used to believe that if you gave cpr to a dead person they would come back to life,I told my cousin and he tried it at the funeral of my aunt.His family was kicked out and he was grounded for a month!

My couisn was mad at me person

When I was 4 my dad died. In trying to explain what death was my granny told me it's like going to sleep and never waking up. I thought if I went to sleep he would come get me and then I'd never wake up either.

I'm 37 and I'm still afraid to sleep.

Michelle