Jeliette - i I have sad7funny story about this very phenomenon.
In 1964, a fellow died in a single car crash, at tremendous speed, late one summer night. Our parents watched from their bedroom as the car missed the curve and the headliights flipped over and over, into the valley beside the curve.
Two days later, the mans sister showed up at our farm, as my parents had actually witnessed the crash. The car was a 1956 Chrysler with a huge hemi engine, it literaly screamed past our farm, at full throttle. The mans sister was inconsolable, surely there must have been another car to force her brother off a good paved road, were they sure he wasn't being pursued to be diving so fast, could there have been livestock on the road, a blown tire maybe, the weather?
Mom and dad could only explain what she just could not accept - there were no brake lights her dear brother had either fallen asleep, or was looking at the radio as he rocketed into the first curve in nine miles of straight road.
That evening as my brother and I rounded up the cows for milking, we were discussing the sisters visit.
At the wise old age of 11 and 12 years , we concluded the sister was way too concerned and emotional as her brother was already old enough to have 'one foot already in the grave' anyway. The man ,as it turned out, was the ripe old age of 36 years .
I thought about that man all my life, as I reached his age and well beyond. When my son dies in his 30s and I at 55 cried every day for 9 months.
Perspectives change.
