Remaining Dead

According to the AP, Donald Miller went to court this week to ask a judge in Ohio to declare him alive. He had been declared dead after deserting his wife and children and vanishing for many years. "You're still deceased according to the law," the judge told him. And then things got odd. While the judge was following the statutes in Ohio, he was also doing the right thing. Miller's wife and children had lived on Social Security benefits during his death. If Miller is declared alive, his wife will have to pay back those benefits. (I think this is what my mother called "a good death.")