The late Carol Hiller

I get very anxious if there's any possibility that I am going to be on time or God forbid early. Not sure why. Always have been - I have very clear memories going back to kindergarten of this fact. Unfortunately, I also have a tendency to marry people who do not share my mindset on this. Perhaps this is why I live alone. Did you read about the actress from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman who was found, mummified, in her house in Beverly Hills last week? The authorities estimated that she had been dead for a year. I won't be drying up that long because I have a son who will wonder why I am not returning his phone calls, and a landlord who will move to evict me after non-response to his rent-is-due reminders. But that's it. I do notice that if you don't show up on Facebook for a few days, a few weeks, a few months... nobody notices. You're just one of hundreds. Faceless on Facebook. In the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series of books by Alexander McCall Smith, the dialect expression "late" means "dead," which it also means in English, but apparently in Botswana the word has a broader compass. One would say "She is late," and this would mean dead, rather than tardy. Someday I shall be late, instead of merely late.