And now I figure this: If ever your mother asks you to choose between her death and disappearance, have her die. Always. Though not immediately, of course. Death has a certain elegance to it. A date. A time. A body. A clean hemline, so to speak. Death is, more and more by the day it seems, very expensive. Whatever the cost, pay it. A disappearance, on the contrary, is a messy, sordid enterprise.
