DEAR MISS MANNERS: A few days ago, my mother-in-law informed me of the death of her husband's brother. I passed along the news to more distant relatives who needed to be informed.
A day later, however, my father-in-law told us that the uncle in question was ... not actually dead. I updated the relatives, but I had trouble not making it sound like a farce, which seemed disrespectful of the uncle in question.
I am curious if there is a more polite way to tell people, "My mother-in-law is declaring people dead when they're not."
GENTLE READER: "It seems that there has been a mistake and fortunately, Uncle Lou is not, in fact, dead." Miss Manners hopes that the relief this news provides will overshadow the blame of whoever's mistake it originally was.