It happened to a minister(iii)

Another funeral story... Early in my first ministry in NZ a man died suddenly. I had met him, but had only met his wife briefly once before. I went around to meet her and sort out the funeral stuff. Her brother was there and other members of the wider family. We worked out the funeral arrangements and then a cup of tea was made and we slid into relaxed conversation. They pulled out a "Dominion" newspaper, one of the leading NZ papers. They showed it to me and were annoyed that there were spelling mistakes in the death notice. "Surely they could get a death notice right?" they complained. "Especially the 'Dominion' " I added, "It's not like its some cheap local paper!" I then went on with something like, "I don't know what's up with the local paper, 'The Evening Standard' it has been making glaring mistakes in the headings on the front page!" ..... there was a deathly silence in the room and I knew I had said something wrong. It was then that someone explained to me that the widows brother, sitting on my right hand side was the head proof reader for the 'Evening Standard' newspaper! ...... Me and my big mouth! .... no more insecure youthful forced conversation ... live and learn...... older and wiser sometimes.