It was my father’s birthday yesterday. He’s no longer with us, but of course we think about him each year on his birthday, and we always say, ‘He would have been [x years old] today.’

My dad reached the age of 91, as far as I know the greatest age that any member of my immediate family has achieved. He died seven years ago, so it still seems perfectly plausible to say, as I did yesterday, ‘He would have been 98 today.’ One can easily imagine it.

But a younger member of the family asked, ‘How long are you going to go on saying “So-and-so would have been such-and-such an age today?” Surely there must come a point when it’s no longer reasonable to speak as though they’re still around, celebrating birthdays in some sort of parallel dimension?’

But what is that point, where imagination should accept a reality check? As lifespan increases, the point must be gradually advancing. At the moment, common sense would probably stop me from saying that a person ‘would have been x years old today’ once the number goes above 100. It doesn’t feel quite reasonable to say ‘So-and-So would have been 117 today’.

On the other hand, each January 27th I seem to find it quite normal to mention that Mozart, to take this year as an example, ‘would have been 263 today’. Somehow that doesn’t seem ridiculous!