Hey there, everyone! First of all, I must thank all of you for replying to my original post, with thoughtful and interesting replies and opinions.
I have taken many of them to heart, to the extent that I had to face some of my demons, or at least be prepared to meet them halfway.
A couple of days ago I was with my boss and the time seemed right (it was weighing on my mind, as we were talking about Mother's day, family, etc.) I told her that I need to clear something up and that I was embarrassed about having told a lie. Then I said my son had died 5 years ago and that it was a difficult subject for me to address, especially with new people.
She was very supportive, sympathetic and said she understood why I had lied. She wanted to see a photo of him and also told some stories of people in her life who had died. I ended up feeling much better about it all and have since been truthful when co-workers have asked me about my family, etc.
It always kinda blows my mind that we are able to distill a tragic situation into a brief sentence of 3-5 words.
To the woman whose daughter was murdered, I feel such sympathy for you. I have, in the past, "consoled" myself with the knowledge that things could have been so much worse. My son lived such a dangerous lifestyle that it is a miracle that he was not murdered or God forbid, held captive in somebody's basement, tortured to death. I too saw my child in his "casket"- a cardboard box and I couldn't believe it was him. If anyone doubts the existence of a soul, you just have to see a dead body to know that the essence of who that person was is GONE. The body is a house for the soul, nothing more.
I'm going to leave it here, maybe to revisit the situation, because I know it will come up again and I may revert to the comfort zone of denying his death (but, ugh, that makes me feel bad) if I decide that I don't "owe" people the truth, because I barely know them. Actually, having typed that, I do feel that I will be honest in the future, because as we have so often heard, the truth will set you free.