Mrs. Jessica Fletcher was Infertile!

This is my post for NIAW (National Infertility Awareness Week).  There are plenty of wonderful and very serious NIAW blog posts out there, I thought I'd walk on the lighter side this year.

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While we get comfortable here with my crackpot theories, there are two songs to accompany this post, if you like.  First, let's get relaxed.

I have come to really love Murder, She Wrote.  Particularly during my convalescence after the laparotomy, it was such a daily comfort to me.  I love how polite Mrs Jessica Fletcher is in all situations - when others are crass, she merely frowns.   She always seems to know the right thing to say in all social situations - even when, say, confronting dangerous murderers.

I love how she has classic old-lady hair that is never mussed.  She is always so put together - shoes matching purse!  Always elegant yet modest.  And how do they fit all those fancy clothes into those tiny 1980s suitcases when they travel?  I love that mystery too!  And how they all have matching dressing gowns to throw on over their night gowns/pyjamas (ladies always in night gowns/negligee) if the murder happens at night and they need to rush out to the hallway.

She is an avid runner in her Keds in the opening credits, and I like running, and think it would be neat if I was still running in my 60s.  She does not tolerate bullying, and never lies, even if it means gently hurting someone's feelings - that takes really lady balls.  The goody-two-shoes of it all soothes me.

Then it came to me - why do I love Mrs Jessica Fletcher best?  Feel a kinship with her?  Because she and Mr Fletcher must have been INFERTILE!  She doesn't seem like your Grandma, she seems like your Aunt.

Think of it - she was sixty when the series started in 1984.  So she and Frank were probably married just after the war.  This was not a time when couples chose to be childless so they could do more partying, or have more "me" time.  Also, they had that BIG nice old Victorian in Maine.  Any way you slice it - they were infertile.  Jessica has nieces and nephews only, no children.  Now, maybe it was Frank and not Jessica, I suppose we'll never know, but it doesn't really matter.  It could have been they had some losses as well - poor JB.

Mrs Jessica Fletcher must have been through the pain and finally acceptance of childlessness.  She is an IF sista.

Mrs Jessica Fletcher taught high school English for years (not sure if this was before she was widowed in her 50s or just after), then as we know became a successful mystery writer with all sorts of friends and family in all sorts of places.  Besides the whole solving murders thing - she really did have a full and happy life.  Even when not travelling, she was friends with the Cabot Cove doctor and Sheriff.  Although she had numerous offers of engagement, Frank Fletcher was the only man for her.

In short - she certainly doesn't mope about all day like I picture myself doing if we ever fully decide to go childless.  She takes life by the horns and lives it fully!

I urge you to your Netflix ladies, and check this lady out in action!  :)
Our final song.