Why?

Question:

 i love your alice books the last alice book i read was really really sad at the end and i have to ask you something….. why did you have to make —— die!!!!! come on!!! its soooo sad!!!
alice, pam, and liz are really sad!!! i hate that!! but yeah!! so i hope you write back!!

Phyllis replied:

Because that’s life.  Not everything goes all right all the time, and sometimes really awful things happen.  Alice wouldn’t be real if she never had to face tragedy, would she?