Die laughing
I have a little confession to make about obituaries: while I always approach obituaries and the families and/or funeral directors who write them with the utmost professionalism and respect, there is a goldmine of humor that can occasionally be found in obituaries that I can’t resist acknowledging from time to time.
Sometimes the humor is unintentional, arising from rather unfortunate typos that are caught and corrected before the obituary goes to press. For example, over the last six years I’ve received obituaries with the following errors:
“Please send donations to the Panty Fund of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.”
“He is survived by two sins, John and Michael.”
“He is survived by sisters, Ann and Joan, and most of Laura.”
Then there is the humor that arises from obituaries for people who have unique nicknames or very creative families: I recently received an obituary for someone named “Whank” Johnson.
An obituary for a man who worked on the railroad his entire life ended with this statement: “Herb’s train has finally left for heaven.”
Another obituary had this statement that revealed a little more than I wanted to
know about the deceased: “Beloved mother of David, Frank, Rhonda and Judy, Helen loved a lot in her time.”
Finally, here are the opening two sentences from a recent obituary: “Terry reported for duty in Heaven to his Captain face-to-face on Tuesday, Jan.18, 2007, at 4:35 p.m. It is understood that he will be working with horses.”
Working with obituaries is a very intense job; you’re working with grief stricken families making major decisions within a short span of time. If I didn’t find occasional moments of levity, I’d be a complete nervous wreck, unable to work with families in any capacity. However, I do religiously watch “The Tonight Show” Mondays and Tuesdays to make sure none of my obituaries made Jay Leno’s “Headlines” segment.
Ask Miss Death
One of the things I like most about my job as an obituary writer is that it is a great icebreaker. Whenever I meet anyone new, the minute I tell them I write obituaries I immediately get asked all sorts of questions about the job and, occasionally, about the funeral industry.
Around the paper I’m regarded as an encyclopedia of death (or, depending on who you ask, the mistress of death): you want to know when someone died, ask Mandy; you want to know which funeral home handles most of the deaths in the Fox Hill area of Hampton, ask Mandy; you get the picture.
At Mark’s urging, tonight I’d like to introduce a new feature to the blog: Ask the Obit Girl. What obituary related topics are you dying (no pun intended) to know about:
• how to handle matters if family members are feuding over the content of an obituary?
• the best way to list survivors in an obituary?
• the proper etiquette for listing pets as survivors?
No topic is off limits and I welcome challenging questions.
