@Nords. You never fail to amaze. I have thought of drafting my own obit, but not sure I have the guts or want to put the DW and DD through the anguish while I'm still around. i guess you could do it secretly?
What would be the fun of keeping it secret?!?
I drafted both spouse's and mine and then ran them by her for editing. Now they're in our "In Case We Wake Up Dead" file in my desk.
The problem with obituaries on the military side is that the grieving survivors don't really give a crap that I was on the USS JAMES MONROE (SSBN 622 BLUE) or other cryptic career details. But if any of that is misprinted in a military alumni column then the curmudgeons will get their collective harrumphs in an uproar. So I put all the technical details in the proper spelling & format to make it easy for whoever has to get it published in whatever place they want it published.
And then I added in a few details that will make people laugh. Some of those details might even be true. They'll be guessing until all of my submarine mission patrol reports are finally declassified.
On the logistics side, it helps start a discussion about burial/memorial services and other desires.
Our daughter won't see the humor of this until she's at least 40 years old, so we haven't shared it with her yet. Imagine her surprise if I drown at our favorite surf break while she's still in her 30s...
Geez, maybe I should draft a Facebook status update. ("No longer in a relationship"?) What about a 140-character version for my Twitter account?
On a more serious note, a couple months ago I had to write a bunch of e-mails & letters to the people who sent my father their Christmas cards-- explaining that he was now in a care facility with Alzheimer's. What a way to spend the holidays, even though I held off until January. How much easier it would've been for me if Dad had already scribbled down some notes or even drafted an announcement. Instead I was getting reacquainted with people who haven't seen or heard from me since I was in elementary school.
It occurs to me that I should draft a similar obituary for Dad to be published in the town newspapers where he's lived over the years. I don't know if I can reach out to his old friends for their feedback, though, so I'm probably going to have to just make this one up on my own. I'll be seeing a bunch of cousins at a wedding in a couple weeks so I guess I could ask them what they've done for their elders.
Aargh!!!
I was really surprised at how close the Grim Reaper seems after 3-4 days of scanning photos of dead relatives that all look like me.
And childhood photos of my daughter look like mine, which look like my mothers, and on back into the clouds of time... (shiver)
Well, the whole idea behind the booze, guns, cars, & babes is to keep the Grim Reaper at bay...
When my mother's mother died, my cousin went through her old photo albums (and a bunch of other people's albums) and scanned in hundreds of photos. We all got a DVD copy. Among those files were dozens of photos of my mother as she was growing up. I was in my high 40s when I got that DVD, and it was the first time I'd seen any pictures of my mother younger than her college graduation. I wish I'd seen them when my mother was alive so that we could've talked about them.
My brother and I have a similar box of photos from Dad's apartment. Most of them are framed but of course we have to guess at the events, locations, and people. I hadn't even seen my parents' wedding photo before... I don't know why that stuff wasn't on view when I was growing up. One day we're going to have to tackle a similar scanning project.
You're doing good work. People will appreciate it, even if they're not going to admit it to you!
