Morbid Marketing

I am not by nature a paranoiac, but why am I suddenly receiving unsolicited e-mails about funeral expenses?

Two came in today.  Last week, too, they were a daily occurrence, and not always from the same company offering such services.

What do these unwanted correspondents know that I don’t?  I have of late undergone a couple of surgical procedures.  Neither was remotely life-threatening, but has my name, as a result, somehow made its way on to some mailing list?  If so, who supplied it?  The hospitals?  The doctors?  The private health insurance company we use? I don’t know, which makes it all the more irritating, not to mention unnerving.

What I am being asked to do, I gather, is to take out an insurance policy that will take care of funeral costs – a very sensible precaution, no doubt, especially given the rising cost of such services.

But why the sudden concern for my health?  Or is it my wife they are worried about?

Neither of us has ever given a moment’s thought to such matters.  I suppose the time will come when contemplation of our transfer from this world to the hereafter will impose itself on our waking moments, but my hope and expectation is that it will not be for some time, even if meanwhile we have to endure being bombarded with exhortations to attend to the practicalities of preparing for it.

I must look into why I am now a target for such morbid marketing campaigns.