I was at one of Chris’s friend’s birthday parties last night, and an acquaintance and I were chatting about marriage, weddings, and how she feels “old” (she’s only turning 28 this year) since she’s not in any relationship and doesn’t see any person being a potential. She talked about her parents’ expectations of her, particularly since one of her sisters just got married and another is in a serious relationship. “Do you have any siblings?” she asked. I answered affirmatively and said I have one older brother. “Is he married already?” she then asked. I said, no.

I guess I wasn’t lying. I do have an older brother. He isn’t married. No one asked me if I had a living older brother. It’s always one of those slightly awkward questions because when it’s people I don’t know well who probably don’t need or want to know about my background, I try to stay away from revealing he’s gone for as long as possible. In one instance when I did reveal that he had passed away, some really inept person (who really did not know me at all) asked me how he died. That was not fun at all.