Rudolf is reported to have proposed a similar suicide pact to the 24-year-old Kaspar a month before his death at Mayerling, which she rejected, presuming it to be a joke. Vetsera may have been Rudolf's second choice in his search for a partner in death, but it appears she did not interpret his proposal as a notion of a desperate man not wanting to die alone. Her family and friends took pains to emphasize that the emperor and the Vatican would never countenance the dissolution of Rudolf's marriage, and Vetsera no doubt realized that at some point she would have to fulfill her obligation to her family and marry someone who was Rudolf's inferior. She wrote: "If I could give him my life I should be glad to do it, for what does life mean for me?”