Where did she Pass?

Last night we had one of those funny moments where you just have to laugh at the English language. Thomas was asking where someone's mom was. He told Thomas that she had passed away. Thomas asked where she passed. Well, um... yeah, stumped, awkward. How on earth do you respond to that one? Just another example of how trying to make the truth sound nice just leads to confusion. Why can't we say "she died" without feeling like we are saying the wrong thing? OH well. I hope you laughed as hard as we did. Or maybe you just had to be there.