If my husband has been asked this question once, he’s been asked it a thousand times by all our grandchildren. Seeing their Papa with an eyepatch on is just too fascinating for young children. Even if he tries to answer the question, they will come up with more.
When our now older grandchildren began asking Papa this question many years ago, it took him some time to learn to give answers they would understand. I remember advising him many times that children are literal. If you tell them “I lost it” they are going to want to go help him, find it. Even with that said, any answer he gives just gives them more questions to ask.
Now we have great-grandchildren asking these same questions. The boys love to ask him if he’s a Pirate, to which he always answers, “Yes”. What really brings on the questions or screams of fright, is if he takes the patch off. To some seeing the empty eye socket is super cool, but to some, the girls mostly, it is too scary. But regardless of the questions or the reactions, Papa especially loves telling, not only his grandchildren, but any child that asks that, yes, he is in fact a pirate……