Why not write your own obituary?
February 28th, 2010
I can’t really think of a reason not to – I can think of several reasons why we all should – first and foremost, it would save your family from major stress – let me explain. I have seen families extremely stressed out, because they were trying to write an obit in time to meet the newspaper’s deadline (for the next day). It’s sad to watch. Even families with plenty of time say they’ll go home and write it, but then when they get home, there’s company and phone calls, etc. Even if you write your own, your family may want to tweak it, but it surely would be a huge help to them if you’d go ahead and get started (now)! Besides, you know correct spelling of names and important dates – under stress, your family may make mistakes – I’m just sayin…
So, how do you start? First, realize who your readers are. Among many of them, your most important readers are your grandchildren – here’s why. The obit may be (probably will be) the only tangible ‘take away’ from your funeral. That obit is gonna get clipped and kept in your family’s Bible – am I right? You know I am! Your grandchildren are gonna grow up and get married and have kids – at some point, they’re gonna pull that obit out of their Bible and show it to their spouse – and someday, their kids. So here’s what you do… ok, say your name is John Doe… pretend you’re an author writing a letter about the life of John Doe, and you’re writing it to John Doe’s grandchildren! That’s all there is to it! After you’ve written the letter, then we can tweak it into an article called ‘the obituary’. We can do that ahead of time (hint hint), or we can wait and do it later (when we have to). Sorry, but you know I’m a big advocate of arranging ahead of time – way ahead of time. But I digress…
I tell many folks; if you wanna live on purpose and do good things, then go ahead and write your obituary – then between now & when you die, do whatever you have to do so that your obituary will turn out to be true!
