I don’t know if anyone else does this, but I find it interesting/amusing to scan the local obituary column in our newspaper, even when I don’t know any of the deceased.
Lately I’ve been noticing the deaths of people in my age group(I’m forty-eight). *Eek! * There may be someone from high-school, someone I *knew! * Or I look to see who was the oldest person who died. And I always check out the folks who died at the age of ninety-nine, to see how close they made it to one-hundred.
One of the coolest obituaries I ever read was one of the ninety-niners. The guy died only **two days ** before he reached one-hundred. It was a rather standard obituary up until the very last line, which stated *“The party planned for his one-hundredth birthday will go on as scheduled” * Is that great or what?
I read the obituaries all the time. My mom started me on this kind of creepy habit, because she used to read them every morning looking for family. (We have a huge family, the only time we get together is a wedding or a funeral.)
I started reading the obits when I was a senior in high school, and the first time I ran across someone my age it was someone I had graduated with. Then, once I started working in various pharmacies and nursing homes, I would often find the names of former patients listed. That was kind of sad, but hey, everybody’s gotta go sometime, right?
Back in the 70s when I was a kid, I knew a man who still delivered milk to people’s homes. He read the obits every morning to see if any of his customers were listed.
Thanks for the link. I’m not sure I want to use it though.
I know this is a light hearted thread, but when I saw it, it gave me a chill. I’ve known over 100 men who have died of AIDS, and many times had not seen some of them, or known what had become of them for several years, until they were listed in a rather conspicuous obit page in a gay newspaper. It sort of takes the fun out of the obituaries.
I never even looked at the obits until one day in 1988. I was flipping through the paper while on break at work. The only reason I stopped, was that I saw a picture on the obit page. At that time, very few pictures were seen on the obit page. When I looked to see who it was, I was shocked to see it was a guy I had gone to school with from 4th grade through graduation! Turns out he had died of AIDS. Weird thing is, I had passed him in a pizza place not six months before. Now I look every day.
That was kind of sad, but hey, everybody’s gotta go sometime, right?