the elephant in the room is dead

You can talk about a lot things that have passed.
Past jobs, past apartments, past roommates and partners.
But you can't talk about dead people.

Can't even make a subtle, grammatical verb shift from likes to liked.
Everyone knows quickly you mean liked as in no longer likes as in no longer living.

I feel like I'm in a skit with canned laughter, and my job is to sneak the elephant across the room. Which is impossible. Because the elephant is dead. And by the way, no one laughs.

Not that you want anyone to. You are just sick of being denied the right to reference your own mother which is like, a large part of your life that is now taboo from all of those who have things in the past but not actual lives lost. Then again don't we, all of us? Is there a big difference between past and passed and gone from well, dead gone?

The answer is yes and no. And here we are.

To all of you who are uncomfortable, you make me more uncomfortable.

To all of you, it will be your turn soon. Sorry.