Monday, January 30, 2006

Obituaries

A friend called my mom to tell her about a mutual acquaintance that had died. Curious as to how the friend had heard, mom learned that the friend daily read the obituary column in their local paper. "Don't you think that's weird?" mom asked me.

Well, truthfully, I now read the obits daily, too. I didn't used to. The older I get though, the more I notice that a good many of those dropping off are MY age! When I was younger, I'd scan the page for familiar surnames, but now, I look at their ages. mmmm... 45, wonder what got her? I think now I look at the obits in the local weekly paper just to make sure I'm not in there.
If I'm not, I figure the day looks good.

I do think obits are fairly useless. I mean, they leave out all the important information. What killed the guy??? Do you ever notice they don't put that in? They write all about the person's life, but leave out the ending. If I wrote obits, they would have an ending.

1 comment:

pita-woman said...

Well, as someone who works in a funeral home, I can give you a little insight to obituaries if you like...
The C.J. only provides the 1st 9 lines free, which basically means there is only room for the name of the deceased, their age, where the funeral is and where they're being buried.
Anything beyond those 9 lines, the C.J. charges an outrageous fee, and the average obit that lists little more than the decedants immediate survivors, former occupation, and church affiliation usually runs between $150 - $200, although they can & do frequently go much higher.
Many families can not afford to spend the money on these obits. Where as obits were once free and full of info, they are now considered a luxury item.
It is a shame that it's all about the all-mighty dollar.

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