At our morning fellowship, I told Sparky that his Uncle Randy, my brother-in-law, had passed away.  We’d visited several times, so I thought we should talk about it.

“Was he the black one, the striped one or the one with the white belly?”

What?  He had a white belly, so probably that one.

“If you want, I can have his tail.”

Randy loved cats, liked you, and got on well with people who weren’t assholes.  He wouldn’t be offended by your disturbing question, but would probably have laughed, then asked Joanne to make you a hamburger.

This is not social media, so I will not be dumping my purse to examine my trauma in public.  I did want to acknowledge the loss.