conuly

all my practice finally paid off.

I spent a lot of time saying the words "Unfortunately, my mother passed away in September" in preparation for somebody whom I haven't already told asking after her health, and when it finally happened that somebody said "How's your mom?" I was able to say that instead of "Oh, she's dead, how's yours?"

The latter, believe me, was my very first instinct, and the words were right behind my teeth when my rehearsed script asserted itself.

Most of my neighbors, I must assume, are used to me by now, and probably the rest would think something like "Poor thing, she must be out of her mind with grief and has no idea what she's saying", but I'd rather not dump that level of awkward on them, not unsuspecting like that.