Favorite uncle died tragically.

We have three young children 7 or younger. Night before last we got a phone call that wife's favorite uncle (and mine, and the kids) was tragically killed in a traffic accident close to his home.We have not had to deal with the topic of death with the kids before at least with them old enough to understand. We had a pet die a couple years ago but they didn't have any reaction back then.We were both raised in catholic families but I'm an atheist after decades of cognitive dissonance trying to be religious. (I mostly keep that to myself given the other family members.). My wife isn't practicing either but claims to have belief when around her religious friends and family but I think it's primarily due to peer pressure / fear of the unknown as we never go to church or otherwise live as if we were.We will have to tell them pretty soon although we think they are too young to handle 1+ days of memorial services far from home so we probably won't take them to that.Any advice on breaking the news? My thought was to let them know there was sad news, uncle had died, he won't be around anymore, it's ok to be sad because we love him and will miss being with him, let them talk. Has anyone tried something that worked well or backfired badly?It's a terrible situation he was a beloved awesome guy and his presence will be badly missed. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2siwvvy