Let me try to explain once again what I mean, Hasini. Of course I'm not feeling sorry for dead people because they are being eaten by maggots, I feel sorry for them because they are dead. Or rather, I feel sorry for those who died young, before their time ought to have been up.
About fifteen years ago my sister-in-law's brother-in-law died of cancer at the age of thirty-nine. His wife was devastated at first, and his daughters, six and ten years old, were shell-shocked. But now, fifteen years later, they have all moved on. His wife has found a new man, an extremely nice person, and his daughters, in their twenties, are busy building their own lives and are doing well. I'm sure the daughters still really miss their father, but I honestly believe they are very confident in their ability to build successful and happy lives of their own. As for the wife, if her husband was miraculously brought back and she was given a choice as to which man she would like to spend the rest of her life with, her present partner or her former husband, I'm not absolutely sure she would choose her husband.
So this man's family has moved on. But what about himself? If he hadn't been so cruelly struck down by this insidious disease, he would have been in his mid-fifties now, probably still vigourous and very able to still enjoy life. Every day that goes by is a day that this man should have been able to live through and enjoy! Every new day is a day that has been stolen from him! His family is happy again, his family has moved on, but nothing can compensate him for what he has lost. If his wife visits his grave every day, if she brings fresh flowers and kisses his gravestone and talks to him and does everything she can to prove her love to him, that still isn't going to give him back a single day of all the days he has lost.
A little less than a year ago, my brother's father-in-law died. He was seventy-eight. He was a lovely man, and we all miss him terribly. But I don't feel that his life was stolen from him. He died of a heart attack at seventy-eight, and his mother and father both died of heart disease in their early sixties. I don't feel that my brother's father-in-law was cheated out of anything that he ought to have had. We all miss him terribly, and I feel so sorry for his wife and his daughters and his sons-in-law and his grandchildren. But I don't feel sorry for him.
As for my sister-in-law's brother-in-law, I don't miss him, and I've never really missed him, because I never knew him well. And I don't feel at all sorry for his wife, because she is happy with her new man. I do feel sorry for his daughters, but I honestly believe that they are relatively happy now. But above all, I feel sorry for him.
So if Lois is killed prematurely, I'm going to feel very sorry for her. Nothing is going to compensate her for her death. And a lack of compassion for her in a Lois deathfic is going to hurt me a lot.
Ann
