This is interesting because last year someone from my school contacted me on LinkedIn to ask me to meet a few of them at a restaurant, on the reunion weekend. I'm afraid I had no idea what to answer, and rather than saying yes or no, just ignored the message.
Recently I've been wondering about why I reacted like that. I wouldn't say I was mercilessly bullied at school, but I know I felt very different and struggled, not only to fit in socially, but also struggled to keep up academically, as I grew older. I think I grappled with how to answer the invitation too, because now, 30 years on, I have fewer achievements than most of them will have -not that much of a career, and a bit of a disastrous personal life. I was scared to tell them who I was then, and am more scared now. Also, just practically, alone with three children and struggling to make ends meet, I had no idea how to get away to a restaurant in another part of the country for a night.
But, whether or not my reasons for not answering the invitation are valid, I think being dead, and probably being in jail, certainly seem valid reasons for not turning up.