No, not lately, but it reminds me of the obits my grandmother cut out of newspapers and kept. They used to put a lot of personal information in them. I find things like that very interesting.

Shirley

About a month ago I saw an obituary that was written by the deceased person. Apparently, she was a cancer patient and liked to write. It was written in the first person and had all the pertinent information except the exact day of her death. It was well written but it didn't include any unusual information.

Ron

I see more death notices that appear to have been written by the deceased in preparation for death.

Large newspapers have both 'death notices', which are placed by and paid for by the deceased's family or a funeral home, and 'obituaries' -- written by a newspaper staffer, usually limited to people of some general public interest.

I'm a great reader of both if they contain real stories about real lives. Our local paper's obits are often quite interesting because many long established Chicago families have lived here for generations. They put personal perspectives on historical events.

Gee, I read a really interesting one a few weeks ago that I wish I had saved. The gentleman had lived into his eighties, but the picture was of a very handsome man in his young thirties. He no children or spouse, so I don't know if it was written by a friend or a relative. It was quite lengthy and mentioned that the man had been a bonvivant who loved to travel and had lived in many different countries.

It said he always dined out as he had never learned to cook. He always rode his bicycle or took jets, as he had no interest in learning to drive. He had been a Professor of History and claimed to have a larger library of World War Two books than the national archives! But the kicker was the last sentence, that made me wonder if the man had prewritten his own obituary. It said "Edward enjoyed a very active and enjoyable sex life until the day he died." I sure hope if he didn't write it himself, that he's not spinning in his grave right now!

As a newspaperwoman (I'm old-fashioned on that, even in this Internet age), I can tell you that obituary writers can get pretty bored writing the same-old "vanilla" obit: name, place of death, cause of death, work history, list of survivors. Yes, the relatives of the deceased will cut it out and save it (well, those who still think of doing that), but it's so much more personal and touching to include a mention of the things that made that person unique. Sometimes a next-of-kin will relate the most amazing, or funniest or simply touching anecdotes that really let the reader connect with the deceased person. Those are the obits that add something to the lives that are still being lived.

I saw a strange one that said the lady was survived by her dog, "tink pot." LOL I believe I would have left that out.

One that comes to mind that was a guy I went to school with whose family were long time residents of the town I live in and in the oil business.His obit mentioned his beloved and faithful companion,his dog,and also 3 cats,all named in the obituary.It also mentioned that his 17 year old cat passed away one day after his death.It was rather touching.Not something I would do but typical of the man he was.He loved animals and pretty much got along better with them than with people.

You know how so many obits say "surrounded by loving family" or some such loving passings. One of a middle aged man read that "he went out kicking and screaming"!!! Love it.

Something that I've seen more recently in local obits is that there was a caring cremation. I wonder how a cremation qualifies to be described as "caring" as opposed to what..... uncaring? slipshod? hasty? or ??? I'm just intrigued by the terminology. When some someone is buried, it's just a burial (performed with not much care?).

bee -- Tee-hee! Thanks for that! DH's favorites are small town papers where nobody DIES! They are 'summoned'. (Recalled? Moved up? Or down?)

I saw one this morning and thought of this post. This lady's obituary said "In high school she was a majorette, prom queen and voted most quiet". The woman was 76 years old. Surely there was something more recent they could've written about.

A family friend, who died young from ALS, obviously prepared his own obit because the last line was "I am so&so and I approve of this message". I believe it was during election time when we all heard that during so many commercials. He had a wonderful sense of humor & life and it was such an appropriate obit to summarize that.

I'd like to know the story behind the pictures that are used. Often it's a picture of a young soldier, who actually died in his 80's. Is it the deceased's favorite picture? the family's? the last picture they had of the deceased?

When the picture is 40+ years old, it's not as though someone will see it and think I don't know his name but isn't that the guy I see at the grocery store all the time? Not many other people reading the obits will recognize them from seeing an old photo.

But maybe that's part of the point. It does make me stop and look at the obit because the picture is so intriguing.

My favorites are when an elderly woman dies and they print a picture taken when she was in her 20's or 30's. Come to think of it, thst's how I'd like to go out.

My MIL passed away a few weeks ago.
In her obituary we wrote: Mom loved her family,her cats, the Utah Jazz and Diet Coke. She said she wouldn't give up her Diet Coke until the Prophet said she had to' (She was LDS and was speaking of the LDS Church Leader.

The town fix it man died several months ago. His obituary said 'he loved all things broken."

I hope when it's my time there is something clever to be written about me.

Lori

The obits are the most interesting part of most papers. I had one elderly man come in a few years ago to the hospital where I work. I think he was in his 90s, if I'm not mistaken. Wasn't feeling good, he actually walked in on his own, but never left. His wife was in another area hospital in the hospice unit, dying of cancer. She called every night asking how her husband was doing. Pretty soon we would have to tell her he wasn't doing very well. I felt so bad for them both. He was worried about her more than himself and wasn't able to see her. I asked the doctors on his team if there was any way to get them to the same hospital, but they told me he wasn't stable enough. The other hospital was maybe five minutes away from us! He finally died without ever seeing her again. He was one of those patients you just never forget. We later read his obit in the paper. About six months later (my memory isn't that great so I'm not sure, but less than a year), I recognized the last name of an elderly woman who died...and it was the man's wife. They both had an interesting life and had been married for many years. I just thought it was so sad they didn't get to be with each other at the end.

When my mom died, my dad's memory wasn't that great and I guess he told the funeral home I lived in Louisville so that's what they printed in the paper.

Lori from Utah ...

... write it yourself, maybe?

Consult some of your funny-bone friends while doing so?

ole joyful

P.S. Don't have any of that variety?

Find some!

o j

It's actually not a bad idea to write your obituary yourself. You would not believe the number of people who call my newspaper to have obits written and can't remember (or never knew) some basic facts about the deceased. Like where the person grew up, where he/she went to school (or college), where the person worked, the military service and any awards, what the person's hobbies were. Those are all basic things that we ask about. It'd be nice to know some of the little fun details that made up that person, too ("During retirement, he bought a motor home and visited every state in the nation--and an airplane ticket to Hawaii").

It can be hard for the survivors to think of these things when a funeral has to be planned and they're either in shock or numbed because they're grieving. After my dad's obit ran, someone remembered one of his volunteer activities late in life that he really enjoyed doing--but we forgot to mention it in the obit. He's probably still shaking his head at us up in heaven!