Reading obituaries - one of my favorite parts of the daily paper

I got a feeling that if I live to be 60 I will probably enjoy reading it just to verify my name isn't there.

 

Another good way to sum it up.

 

Heck I read them every day just see if I have to go to work the next day :mrgreen:

 

Well, I doubt there will be much humor @ the end of the earth, but until then cant we have a little fun?

 

Yep, I say party on! :iagree:

 

Sometimes the obit.'s are an interesting little peak into a persons life that I have, and never will, meet. Just a small extension of the idea to celebrate one's life, not their death.

Children don't quite understand that concept but oneday they will

 

:lol::lol:



I read them too. Not daily, but once in a while I'll read over them at the N&O online. I like the life stories some people will put into an obit. I think people want others to know about their lost loved ones. After all, isn't that kind of the point of printing obits?

 

That's how I look at it.

 

Once in a blue moon I glance @ them. Usually @ the ages first, and if the were very young, or very old, I read it more closely. Also I look for names that I know.

Kinda depresing to look @ the young ones. I do wish they all had a cause of death tho.

 

I do the same thing. My heart breaks for the young ones. I always think about their mother and the greif she must be feeling. I get a lump in my throat when I read the ones that say "infant". So sad.

 

:lol: I was just reminiscing with my sister the other day about a former co-worker who read the obits daily. We all worked in the same hair salon and Lorraine (our co-worker) worked M-F from 8am till 4pm and catered mainly to senior citizens. She would arrive every morning for work, about 20 minutes early, with her coffee and the paper and immediately scour the obituary column to see who she could cross off her list for the day. . .sadly, she did cross off names every once in awhile.

I have read them on occasion, mostly curious to see how old people were when they passed. Some of the longer ones were sad, as they went into details about the deceased, which made me realize just how many people they left behind, and how many lives would be affected by their passing.

 

I have the obits for the high school chums that have moved on. I read them on occasion and think about what life was like when we were hanging out.

I say hello and goodbye to them occasionally when I read the obit. Especally the one for my first girlfriend.

 

I can understand that, but 30 years after moving out of Milwaukee and not subscribing to the Milwaukee Journal, I would not have the opportunity to look them up anyway.

 

I read them on the weekends or whenever I get the paper. I think it is pretty cool about what is said about ones life. I have been doing this since I was a Junior in High School when one of my best friends committed suicide. Right before she dies she said I am sorry I made a mistake.

I do not live in the same state anymore so I always wonder who else has left this life. I am jsut glad when I do read them my name is not there yet.

 

Ever since my older sister died at the age of 44, I read the obits everyday. I can't explain the reasoning behind it. They can be very interesting, in many different ways. I dont think there is anything morbid about reading them.

 

I read the obituataries as well. I look at it as a sort of respect to those who have passed on and their families. Obviously, the families want people to know why they had so much respect and adoration for their loved one since they took the time to write an obit.

 

I was reading one guy's story about why he also enjoys reading the obits. Here's an excerpt:

For one, obituaries are stories with a closure unlike the daily news items that are generally interim reports. They are often good stories. One reads about remarkable accomplishments, odd achievements, quirky lives, wild adventures, strange vicissitudes, and forgotten personalities.

One reads of distinguished lives with details that were not widely known before or totally unknown to me. One reads of careers that rose and blossomed; one reads of talents that shriveled and petered out. There are lives of people whose names I have never heard of before; there are lives of those whose activities I have been following closely. There are sudden losses and long fruitful lives.

Then, there are deaths of bygone celebrities long out of limelight that make me exclaim: "I had no idea that so-and-so was still alive until so recently."

But, most of all, the lure of the daily obituary reading is nostalgia. Although dictionaries define nostalgia as a form of melancholy, it is for me a feeling that is more glowing than mournful. Melancholy is blue; nostalgia is rosy.

Reading the lives of the people with whom I shared these decades of my own life, I experience a strong sense of community with them. I can almost say that I grew up with them and they are members of my vastly extended family. I feel grateful that they had lived during my life for what they have given me; and I reflect how they enriched my life.

Curiously, I feel the same way even when I read the obituaries of those people whom I had not known that they had existed until I learned that they did now that they are gone. Even in hindsight, thinking that we shared the same world warms my heart.

 

Funny!

 

Hey LI Bratz, Go to Newsday.com and then you can read the island news and there is a Death Notices link and the left side and you can read the obits from LI everyday like I do.