TAS [traditions & superstitions]

Every generation, a person in my family dies at 53.  In the mountains.  When I was a kid I found the statistic quirky; the kind of thing I talked about at sleep-overs with a flashlight held under my chin.

As I got older, I took the dismissal route.  I started to point out that those people in those generations had had heart problems.  One had suffered rheumatic fever as a child.  One had undiagnosed chronic heart failure.

Now when the *ahem* family curse is brought up, I joke that in my family, making it past fifty-three is a golden ticket to a long life--my other deceased relatives lived into their late 80s and 90s.

I'm not superstitious about the whole thing.  Not really.  But--knock on wood--I keep my fingers crossed.