How long will it take to notice your death?

After a week at the beach, I’m back and better than ever. Actually, I don’t know about the better than ever part, but at least I’m back.
I’ve returned to a bounty of odd stories, including what is believed to be the modern record for length of time between someone’s death and the point at which that death is noticed.
The body of a mummified Croatian woman was found in her apartment in May, which is not so unusual. What is bizarre is the last account anyone has of seeing the woman alive is in 1973, and even that information is under dispute. One Croatian news organization says the last sighting was in 1967.
I’m not the most popular guy around, but I hope it would take someone less than 30 years to notice I’ve disappeared.
Along those same lines, an 84-year-old Illinois woman noticed her husband was having health difficulties and rushed to his aid. The much larger husband ends up having a fatal heart attack and falls on top of his wife who is trying to help him.
The frail woman was pinned for four days ‘ without food or water ‘ under her dead and smelly husband. She was only rescued thanks to an alert newspaper carrier. Now who’s blaming the media!
As for today’s final tidbit, I was thrilled to see Canada’s top court has overturned a $345,000 settlement for a man who found a dead fly in his water. In being awarded the settlement, the man, Martin Mustapha, had claimed the dead fly had turned his previously happy life into one of depression, anxiety and phobia.
Perhaps there is a hint of justice in the world after all.
In issuing its ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed that Mustapha suffered real psychological harm, but Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said his reaction was so ‘unusual or extreme’ that bottling company Culligan of Canada should not have to pay compensation.
McLachlin said the legal test for damages is whether a person of ‘ordinary fortitude’ would suffer psychological harm.
Mustapha insisted he had been treated unfairly and said finding the dead fly in an unopened bottle of water in 2001 devastated him. He became obsessed with thoughts of dead flies, could not sleep and was constantly on edge ‘ to the point his entire life suffered, he said.
Somehow, I can’t imagine a dead fly inflicting so much emotional damage.