Dear Ann Landers,
ast week my oldest brother passed away. Several members of the family came to the funeral from other cities. It was the first time some of them had seen each other in fifteen years. After the funeral, the family gathered at my home. They got drunk, told jokes, sang college songs, and played cards. Some of the younger ones had the radio on in the back of the house and were dancing. About midaftemoon seven of them left to go to a movie. I told my sister it was disgraceful, and she said, "You're wrong. I admire them be-cause they aren't hypocrites. Gerald didn't mean anything to them. They hadn't seen him in years. Why pretend?" Some-thing is frightfully wrong with her argument, but what?- V.I.X.

Dear V.I. X.,
Never mind her argument. Something is frightfully wrong with your relatives. Whether Gerald meant anything to them or not is beside the point. Gerald meant something to you, and they were in your home. Jokes, drunk-enness, card playing, and dancing are out of place in a house of mourning. They may not be hypocrites, but they are clods. The following letter sounds like the same family: