[alexander_busek]

I was nine years old. [...] My aunt [...] told me the story of how she found her own father dead, the victim of a suicide. We talked about feelings that I had no words for.

It is inappropriate to "bond" with a nine-year-old child by telling him the details of finding your suicided father's body.

Years later, when I was an Episcopal priest, we received word that a cousin had been shot to death in a chance event in his local 7-11.

Nice euphemism for "innocent bystander shot to death by gang-bangers."

Regards,

[Carpe Cerevisi]

You left out this part:

I felt forever bonded to her and grateful.

I think she was just helping the poor young boy deal with his feelings. I doubt she was graphically describing his father's death.