should ignorance be excused or just ignored? ( Archived) (41)

I would give him the benefit of doubt that he is just curious. Maybe he's afraid he would get MS and wants to know what the symptoms of it are. I don't think it was ignorance.

The thing I'm curious about is, how did you happen to be in a conversation with a store clerk about what your husband died from three weeks after his death. I can't imagine you blurting it out that your a widow and why your husband passed away.

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge.
If we haven't been exposed to a different culture, to the wide variety of medical issues in the world, anything really, then we don't know about the topic. That is ignorance.
My grandfather had Aterial Lateral Sclerosis and I as a child, was not allowed to question what was going on. It was hush, hush. I witnessed my grandfather's decline through the years, played on his exercise equipment, yet didn't understand what was going on.
My great-grandmother had "Hardening of the Arteries", which I now think under the umbrella of Alzheimers, Dementia, etc. No one took the time to explain to me why great-grandmother, whom I loved very much, was asking the same questions over and over and over again, and doing unusual things.

I have learned through the years that Alzheimers, etc. can be hereditary and sometimes skips one generation. I've learned more about ALS, MS, cancer, etc. through exposure, researching, asking, asking, asking.

The timing of the man who asked you that question could've been better for sure. And he may have realized that afterwards. Maybe a way to handle this question while you are going through the grieving process would be to suggest the research it on the internet and explain as best as you are able, that at the moment, it isn't easy yet easy to talk about.

The thing is, people who suffer from MS suffer for a very long time. She said that she lives in a small town and they all know each other.

I would have thought that since he knew her husband for a long time that the question would have come up much sooner while he was still here. The timing of the question is problematic, not so much the question IMO.