The French are dropping dead in unprecedented numbers from the oppressive heat this summer, and the explanation for much of the death toll is that elderly people are left home alone in the heat as the rest of the family vacations at the beach or wherever, this time of year. Estimates run as high as 10,000 deaths attributable to the heat. According to Mark Steyn, some folks are just having Mum put on ice until the vacation is over:
Bernard Mazeyrie, managing director of France's largest undertakers, told the New York Times that several of the bereaved were in no hurry to bury their aged loved ones: "Some, he said, informed of the death of relatives, postponed funerals, not to interrupt the August 15 holiday weekend, and left the bodies in the refrigerated hall." Au bord de la mer? Ou au bord de ma mère? Hmm. Tough call.
We can only hope to be as sophisticated as the French one day, if we pay close attention to how they do it. More Steyn:
In Paris this spring, a government official explained to me how Europeans had created a more civilised society than America - socialised healthcare, shorter work weeks, more holidays. We've just seen where that leads: gran'ma turned away from the hospital to die in an airless apartment because junior's sur la plage. M Chirac's somewhat tetchy suggestion that his people should rethink their attitude to the elderly was well taken. But Big Government inevitably diminishes its citizens' capacity to take responsibility, to the point where even your dead mum is just one more inconvenience the state should do something about.
Read it all. Somehow Steyn manages to wring some humor from a serious topic. Surprised?