the sweeping insensitivity of this still life

This is proving to be a bad week.

Seemingly moments (or so it feels) after being staggered by Miss Sumie's departure from the virtual (and the real), news now comes of the death of the Kaiserin, Kendra Bancroft.

I didn't know her. I saw her once at a formal ball. I don't believe I even spoke to her. So not to be overly callous, but why do I care?

I care because the news is circulating through (RL) places in which I listen, and speak, that Maddie Blaustein has passed on. Maddie Blaustein, as it turns out, was Kendra Bancroft's typist. And Maddie Blaustein was somewhat well-known.

Superstition knows little reason, but in my family, it has proven out--we do tend to expire in sets of threes. Now I find myself morbidly waiting for the third to fall.

Here's hoping I'm wrong.

In the meantime, all my sympathies to those that knew her. Your loss is felt, believe me, in this world and others.