My student is dying

I am currently an intern teacher at an elementary school for 2nd grade. The kid is only 7 years old. He has cancer and the prognosis isn't getting any better. He has been off school for awhile now but he is still enrolled in our school. He is going to have to stay at the hospital for the remainder of his days. <br><br>The thing is that we have a tradition in our school were we write letters to all our students in the last year they are with us. This means that 5th grade will write their letters to 4th grade, 4th will write to 3rd, and so on. Even the pre school kids write letters to 1st grade. <br><br>So our grade has to write to the 1st grade. We have given the assignment to all the kids, but one of them asked what do they write to the student that isn't going to come back. We just said they can write to them anyway and sort of ghost the elephant in the room. And he did write the letter. <br><br>This is going to sound weird but I'm concerned what we are going to do with the letter after he is gone. We have the letters from the last years written on a cabinet in the class room people can read if they want to. I guess we will bury the letter with him then? I don't know. <br><br>Also we are going to have to tell the kids soon. They are going to be really sad.