Do You Read The Obituaries?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’ve been a newspaper reporter and editor, so I’ve written them, too – but that’s not why I read them. Like trublmakr, I read them because people’s lives are so interesting. And because I live on the cusp of Appalachia, there are a lot of obits from the mountains, and DAMN some of those people have interesting names!

I’m probably going to hell for this, but I was particularly amused by a family that chose to run a photo of their deceased loved one. (If you want more than name/town/funeral home, now, you have to pay for it.) She was an older woman and had the most sour face I’ve ever seen. But what was downright ghastly was, she was attempting to smile. It looked like she’d never willingly smiled in her life. Trying to imagine this lady, her life, and the family that decided running this pic was a good idea gave me a whole day’s worth of entertainment.

Which I don’t think is wrong. Death is part of life, however painful. (And I do know it’s painful; I’m no untouched naive rose.) I hope my obit, someday, will give someone a smile, or something to think about. It’s how I live, now, that will determine that.

22

I skim them, at least. They’re often interesting. And I was quite surprised to see, one morning a few months after we moved into our house, that the previous owner had died suddenly. We still get calls and mail for him over a piece of property in Florida, so it’s good to be able to tell them he’s dead.

23

My dad always says, “Look at that! Everyone died in alphabetical order again!”

24

Read 'em? Hell, sometimes I read 'em aloud.