Dead women can act very much alive.

"Dead women can act very much alive sometimes," Mom said. "My nephew Jonathan is still a bachelor, because his mother doesn't approve of modern girls — and his mother's been dead for eighteen years."

James Yaffe; My Mother, the Detective

That is really typical of the down-to-earth wisdom this Jewish mother shows in these stories when she's listening to her police detective son when he comes over on Friday nights for dinner. I loved this set of stories. This tidbit really grabbed me because it is so very true. My grandparents are still very much alive in that way. I weigh a lot of my behavior and manners against the way they lived their lives.