Can anybody please help me? funeral story?

[teenstar]

Hi everyone...
I am new to this sort of thing, but thought I'd give it a go in deperation! My Mum is terminally ill in hospital with cancer-this has come as a huge shock as just 8 weeks ago she was (as far as we knew) absolutely fine. She now has probably a few weeks to live. She is just 55. I am trying to be sensible and get things sorted out before I really need to but am trying to find a story that I have been told about. Its about a dragonfly. The story goes sort of like this: There is a pond full of frogs, fish, lavae, etc and when the lavae go up a bullrush, they disappear, never to be seen again. They all believe they are going somewhere better. The other pond life ask if one of them would just come back and tell them if it really is so wonderful there, but of course the dragonfly that the lavae has become can't go back in the pond.... Obviously this is an analogy about heaven/earth and I think this would be apt as my Mum's faith is not what it used to be at the moment and i would like to have her faith referred to without actually mentioning religion.If anyone can tell me what this story is, or who wrote it I would be extremely grateful. Many Thanks. Tina

The Dragonfly Story
Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond. They did notice that every once in awhile one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more.
"Look!" said one of the water bugs to another. "one of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she is going?" Up, up, up it slowly went....Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited but it didn't return...
"That's funny!" said one water bug to another. "Wasn't she happy here?" asked a second... "Where do you suppose she went?" wondered a third.
No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together. "I have an idea". "The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why."
"We promise", they said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up, he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broke through the surface of the water and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above.
When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn't believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings...The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly!!
Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were scurrying around, just as he had been doing some time before.
The dragonfly remembered the promise: "the next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went and why." Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water...
"I can't return!" he said in dismay. "At least, I tried. But I can't keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I'll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they'll understand what has happened to me, and where I went."