Today, I was speaking to two family members of a deceased person who had a criminal history. The two family members provided essentially the same story about the person. He was an excellent family member, they said, and had a lot of care for everyone in his life. He had gone astray here and there in his youth, but was turning things around.

His death involved a specific illegal substance. I asked both of them if he had a history with the substance; one person said yes, the other no.

I don’t know which is true, but I know this: when someone dies, you want to take care of them. If it’s the case that one of the family members lied to me to protect their loved one’s reputation, I am honestly not bothered by it. I cannot take her word for granted on such issues in the future, but her context is very different from mine.