Being Horrible At Giving Bad News

I'm bad at giving news about peoples' deaths, but not in the way you probably imagine. When old coworkers or mutual friends die and I run into an old coworker or someone from a friend group who's drifted off, after we catch up for a bit I'll remember the death and say, "Oh! You probably don't know!" Then I'll remember that it's horrible upsetting news, but I've already primed this person in what seems a happy, upbeat way, so I'll say, "It's really, really horrible news, I'm so sorry I started like that." By then the person is on the verge of killing me, and then I'll have to tell them what happened. It's awful, but it's one of those things I hope I don't get too much more practice on.

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