Bereavement

her grandmother's impending death. She knew right away that it was an attention-seeking ploy.

We had a good laugh about the goddam purple dress. We don't actually know if she marched into the funeral home and gave them the dress.

On a more serious note, my daughter was annoyed that my brother is being pestered so much. My mother knows that one of these days we will be getting THE call, the one that tells us she is seriously ill or dead. She uses that, so that my brother is afraid NOT to pick up the phone. I still say he has to set boundaries, and tell her, for starters, that he will only talk to her once a day, unless it is a serious emergency.

I suppose when we do see her lying in her coffin in the goddam purple dress, we will have all we can do not to howl with laughter. That is terrible, but the dress thing is funny.