When I was a kid, I always heard a story about an uncle that fell asleep in the ocean and drifted out into the sea. He went for a swim in a tire thing, you know? And he went too far out in the ocean. And fell asleep. And he was never heard from again.

It was my Great Aunt’s first husband. If memory serves me right, my Mom thought it was the story but there was a lot more to it. They told it to the kids so they wouldn’t swim too far out in the ocean. We’d hear it whenever we went to the beach, “Don’t go too far out, remember Uncle Eddie.”

This both serves as a cautionary tale to prevent children from going out too far into the ocean and a clever way to disguise her Aunt’s probable divorce or other such thing you wouldn’t want to talk to kids about. But telling them that he drifted out to sea, it serves a practical purpose and help her avoid the awkwardness of actually explaining to children why her husband left her.