We’ve lost some good ones this year. And last. And the year before.
I was going to write a while back about Obituaries but I didn’t want to offend anyone who had newly lost a person. But obituaries are important and we should appreciate what they are and do for us.
There have been days when obituaries have taken up two pages in the paper and we will have five in a row online. Dealing with obituaries and funeral homes and families through the obituary process is NOT something you think about when you start a local, community paper. However, providing this service has been a touching, unexpected honor. The beauty and responsibility of providing someone’s last tribute.
Everyone reads obituaries. If I had a dollar for every time I hear, “the first thing I read in the paper is the obits to make sure I’m still on the right side of the dirt,” I wouldn’t need to print ads. But I get to read them first – they come from the funeral home or the family and they are rough, tender tributes to loved ones, written for the most part through the blur of the shock and loss. Always poignant and touching.
Most of us don’t know the first thing about writing obituaries and for that, we should be grateful. Writing one is learned through hands-on training. There is a basic structure – the details and dates of birth and growing up. Education, vocation. The personal, little special description of what made the person unique. The preceded by and the survived by, and the details of the services. Some are short and sweet, bereft in loss, and some are “War and Peace” waxing eloquent on the deceased, drenched in the author’s poetic license.
One of the saddest things we do at the paper is take a call from someone who needs to place an obituary. They are for the most part sad beyond belief and non-functioning. It takes a bit to get the whole thing together, all the relatives remembered and spelled correctly, the photo chosen and attached to the email. And then they remember later they need copies of the paper for the family so we go back digging through old issues.
On the backside of the paper, there are interesting things that happen too. Missing or unknown relatives sometimes surface, using us as the intermediary or conduit to family members unwilling to communicate or in some instances who are unaware of each other.
Don Bowman’s party was last weekend. It certainly was not a funeral, but a party that he had planned and paid for before he left us. He set it up to be held at the American Legion, which was fairly fitting, except for the part that the venue was nowhere near large enough to hold all the people who attended – a testament to the fact that we really have no idea, nor do we appreciate the impact we have on those around us.
We helped a bit with his obituary, which was an honor for an old friend. The words are there – online and in print -- and as long as they are, he will not be forgotten.
And we will continue to document our history, to establish the record of our community. Right here...
...keeping you Posted.
Rach
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