Hi and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on I-Heart Radio.

There's a meme my very literary teenage daughter likes. It describes different literature styles by

nationality. It goes like this English literature, I will die for honor, French literature, I will die for honor French literature I will die for love American

literature I will die for freedom Russian literature I will die while I've spent the

great majority of my life in America, I was born in Russia and I still carry around that Russian stoicism and bluntness, especially where death is concerned.

The casual way I talk about death really alarms my family.

Can you not, they say, when I talk about death the way I talk about like anything else

happening in the future,

where I want to be buried, what I'd like to see happen

to my stuff after I'm gone, etc.

Or I read this thing recently that said,

for so many people, the last words they say before they die is calling out for their

mama. I shared this with my husband and kids and they did not enjoy that update at

all. I was thinking about how sweet it was for someone in their 90s

who hadn't seen their own mother in decades

to still feel her and want her when they're on their own deathbed.

To me, that was a happy story.

The faces of my family said that they didn't agree

and they didn't want to be thinking of their own deaths

and their mom long gone. So I try to tone it down for them, but it is just

interesting to me how different cultures think or don't think about death. I'm

scared of death, don't get me wrong. I want to live a long life. I want to be with my

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