Now, I'll Be On My Way

I do family research. Each morning on-line I check several small home town newspapers obituaries of areas that my ancestors settled and their descendants still live - well, to see if any had recently died.

This morning, I checked out the obituaries of people who died yesterday, two days after Christmas. In the four papers I checked, with the exception of one, the number of deaths were unusually high. In one of the papers, it was doubled over the usual amount.

I read once that sometimes people can control when they die. For instance, if they are very ill, it has been noted that some people will wait until they finish reading a certain book before they die, or maybe wait until a certain mini-story on a soap opera is resolved, or their birthday, and of course Christmas.

But then, I wonder, if the natural order of things is confused if they receive a Christmas present they really want piddle with that might take a while, like a new gizmo for the computer, or a new book, or in my case UNCLE JOHN'S DAILY TEAR-OFF CALENDAR with 365 pages?