15 Saying Goodbye story ideas, each one a book your child stars in: A photo on the shelf, a sapling in the garden and the gentle ways a child learns to keep someone close after goodbye. Pick one, add a few details, and the illustrated book starts right away.
Every story is painted in a soft, hand-drawn watercolour look, with your child as the hero of the big day.
Saying GoodbyeDadaji watered the tulsi every morning and hummed the same bhajan. Now the courtyard is quiet, and the tulsi is drooping. Your child fills Dadaji's small brass lota, waters the plant, and tries to hum the bhajan, getting the tune wrong. Dadi comes to the door and hums the right way. Every morning after, the two of them water it together, and the tulsi stands up straight again.
Lesson: Keep doing what they loved and they stay close
Saying GoodbyeBruno, the old brown dog, was there before Your child was born. Now his basket by the door is empty. Your child cannot stop looking at it. Papa suggests writing Bruno a letter. Your child writes about the ball, the walks, the time Bruno ate the birthday cake, and draws him with wings. They put the letter in his basket with his red collar and place the basket under the neem tree.
Lesson: Writing down the good days keeps them from fading
Saying GoodbyeGoldie the goldfish has stopped swimming. Your child wants to keep the bowl on the shelf forever. Amma says gently that Goldie can rest in the garden, where the flowers are. Together they dig a small hole under the rose bush, and Your child places a marigold on top and a pebble painted orange. Every time a new rose opens, Your child says it is Goldie saying hello.
Lesson: Small goodbyes teach the heart to be gentle
Saying GoodbyeAarav and Your child shared a bench, a tiffin and every secret since nursery. Now Aarav's family is moving to Dubai and the flat is full of boxes. On the last day, Your child gives Aarav half of their marble collection and keeps the other half. 'When we meet, we put them back together.' Aarav writes on the box lid: Your child's marbles, do not lose. He does not lose them.
Lesson: A friend far away is still a friend
Saying GoodbyeThe big gulmohar outside the building, the one with the swing, is cut down for the new road. Your child comes home from school to a stump and cries. Dadi does not say it is only a tree. She helps Your child collect the fallen red flowers, press them in a book, and pick up a dried seed pod. In a pot on the balcony, the pod's seeds go into the soil. The first leaf takes three weeks.
Lesson: Something lost can leave a seed behind
Saying GoodbyeNani made the best besan laddoos, and now that she is gone, nobody makes them. On her birthday, Amma is sad and quiet. Your child finds Nani's recipe diary, the page marked with a turmeric stain, and asks Amma to help. The ghee spits, the besan smells like Nani's kitchen, the laddoos are lumpy. Amma tastes one, closes her eyes, and says, 'She is here.'
Lesson: Cook their recipe and the kitchen remembers them too
Saying GoodbyeMishra Ma'am, who taught Your child to read, is retiring. On her last day the class is noisy with cards and cake. Your child has nothing ready, and feels terrible. Then Your child stands up and reads aloud the very first story Ma'am ever gave the class, the one about the clever crow, without stumbling once. Ma'am says it is the best gift she has ever received.
Lesson: The best thank you is showing what they taught you
Saying GoodbyeMithu the parrot has lived in the veranda cage for years, saying namaste to every visitor. One morning the cage door is open and Mithu is gone. Your child searches every tree. Dadaji says Mithu was old and wanted the sky. Your child hangs the empty cage with its door open, fills the bowl with green chillies, and waits. A wild parrot comes to eat. Your child says namaste to it.
Lesson: Let them go and leave the door open
Saying GoodbyeAfter Dadi's things are packed away, Your child quietly keeps her spectacles, the ones she pushed up her nose while telling stories. Papa finds them under Your child's pillow and asks. Your child says they help remember her voice. Papa does not take them away. He puts them on a small stand on the bookshelf, next to her photo, and every night they tell one of Dadi's stories to the spectacles.
Lesson: Keeping something small keeps a big love
Saying GoodbyeEvery Diwali, Nana lit the first diya on the windowsill facing the road. This is the first Diwali without him, and the family has not decided who will light it. Your child asks. Amma's eyes fill up, but she hands over the matchbox. Your child lights the diya, places it just where Nana did, and says, 'Happy Diwali, Nana.' The whole family comes and stands at the window.
Lesson: Take up their small task and the light goes on
Saying GoodbyeThe family is leaving the old house in Lucknow where Your child was born. The truck is loaded. Your child walks through every room one last time, touching the height marks on the kitchen wall. Papa gives Your child a pencil. Your child copies the marks onto a strip of paper, all the way from baby to now, and rolls it up. The strip goes up first in the new kitchen.
Lesson: Take the memory and the house comes with you
Saying GoodbyeBilli, the grey cat, is very old, and one afternoon she goes to sleep in her favourite sunny spot and does not wake up. Your child is quiet for two days. Then Your child cuts a square of Billi's old blanket, sews it onto a cushion with Amma's help, and places the cushion in the sunny spot. Now, when Your child reads there, the sun is warm in exactly the same way.
Lesson: A warm spot can hold a warm memory
Saying GoodbyeBhalu, the one-eyed teddy, is left behind on the Rajdhani. By the time Your child notices, the train has gone. There are tears at the station and tears at home. Nani says Bhalu has gone travelling, and asks Your child to draw where he might be. Your child draws Bhalu at the Taj Mahal, on a boat in Kerala, on a camel. The drawings fill a whole wall, and the wall makes Your child laugh.
Lesson: When you cannot get something back, imagine it happy
Saying GoodbyeThe colony park is being dug up for a parking lot, and the rusty swing where Your child learnt to fly is going. On the last evening, all the children come. Your child suggests each child takes one last swing and says one thing they remember. Then Your child asks the watchman for the swing's old chain. It hangs on the balcony now, holding a pot of jasmine that swings in the wind.
Lesson: Say goodbye together and carry a piece along
Saying GoodbyeAt the family gathering after Nanaji's passing, the grown-ups sit quietly and the children are told to play outside. Your child does not want to play. Instead Your child comes back in with the old photo album, sits in the middle of the room, and asks, 'Tell me about this one.' Mama laughs at a photo, then Mausi, then everyone. By evening the room is full of Nanaji's stories, and of smiles.
Lesson: Telling their stories is the best way to keep them