Welp, I'm back in it (or, Beware The Fangirl Part 2)

[bankworking]

I didn't know the newspaper controlled the wording of obits. I thought the wording was chosen by the family, perhaps with help or using a template from the funeral home if someone there is handling the obit being posted.

[42_42_42]

Our local paper is so behind the times, they won't even list adoption announcements. Birth announcements, yes, adoptions, nope. Those have to be kept hush-hush!

[Argabarga]

Unless they're trying to kick in your front door for your braaaaaaaaains, there's really no reason to have a beef with the dead....

[KatherineB]

I have to say I know it's sucky for Mysty that she had to put up with the woman, but I'm glad for the couple concerned that the woman only ranted on the phone rather than writing a letter in the editorial pages about it, which would only have hurt the feelings of the couple concerned.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Explanation: The paper I work for has two kinds of obituaries: free and paid. Paid ones, the family dictates the obit. Free ones, which are what I do, I take the information given to me and reword it into a specified format. Hand me a three page letter on somebody and I can condense it down to a five-inch column in ten minutes flat. They're just sort of a "matter of the public record" style obit that most people take advantage of for it's free-ness.

And oddly enough, from stats I've been given, at least at our paper, the obituary page is the most read page aside from the front page. Lots of people really do read them whether or not they're expecting to see anyone they know. I don't know why exactly, but it is what it is.

Plus, well, so far as letter to the editor...guess who also screens the mail for the newsroom. Even at that, we don't print letters that are "personal attacks" or anything that would name a name, so at the very worst, there'd be a letter from some woman complaining that we've changed "something" about how we write our obituaries.

We have all our checks and balances in a row

[pzychobitch]

Winning!!!

Nuff Said.

I said this, OUT LOUD, in Charlie Sheen's voice after I read the OP, and then I saw this post. I'm choking back tears I am laughing so hard.

[Null Requiem]

Explanation: The paper I work for has two kinds of obituaries: free and paid. Paid ones, the family dictates the obit. Free ones, which are what I do, I take the information given to me and reword it into a specified format. Hand me a three page letter on somebody and I can condense it down to a five-inch column in ten minutes flat. They're just sort of a "matter of the public record" style obit that most people take advantage of for it's free-ness.

And oddly enough, from stats I've been given, at least at our paper, the obituary page is the most read page aside from the front page. Lots of people really do read them whether or not they're expecting to see anyone they know. I don't know why exactly, but it is what it is.

Plus, well, so far as letter to the editor...guess who also screens the mail for the newsroom. Even at that, we don't print letters that are "personal attacks" or anything that would name a name, so at the very worst, there'd be a letter from some woman complaining that we've changed "something" about how we write our obituaries.

We have all our checks and balances in a row

As far as reading the obits goes, my dad explained that to me this year. He said that he has taken to reading them every day just in case someone he knows who he has lost track of over the years shows up there. Something about getting to the age where you start losing friends...

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Something about getting to the age where you start losing friends...

It's very true that. Not only does my mom read the obits every day (or almost every day) but so does my SO.

So far in the last 4 months, he's seen at least 3 members of his church pass on and just a short bit ago when we got back, his cousin's hubby was waiting in the driveway to tell him about another cousin who'd suddenly died (she thought she was having indigestion but turned out to be a fatal heart attack - she was only 62.)



But to get upset and indignant because of how an obit is worded, as demonstrated in the OP: totally self-centered and inhumane. People like that give me the impression that their families will be throwing a going-away party for them when they're gone b/c they made everybody around them miserable.

[cinema guy]

Maybe reading the obits gives you reassurance that you are still alive.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Unless they're trying to kick in your front door for your braaaaaaaaains, there's really no reason to have a beef with the dead....

Hey, man, that's profiling.

Zombies were people too.

[Opalin]

I read obits to find out about the best in people. It's highly rare that you encounter an obit that's about someone's faults. But sometimes you need to read that kids loved their parents, so and such was a caring gardener or put in blah time at the shelter. Bad things happen, so sometimes it's nice to just see what a person's small accomplishments were.

[Gimli]

Fortunately, now, they're complaining to me. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm a little bit of a fangirl with some...particular interests...so I'm in a unique position to fire back at them.


Me: "I say you're complaining to the wrong person, seeing as I have at least a dozen photoshops on my computer of Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. mid-coitus."

:[/QUOTE]


First, GOOD FOR YOU! I hope her narrow mind exploded.

Second, since I have a major thing for both RDJ and Chris Evans and apparently have some of the same...particular interests... I think you made my ovaries explode with that mental image. *fans self*

[Cecily]

Another reason people read obituaries is to get a good deal on their possessions. Some jerk called about my dad's car when he died. Before the service... heck, the body wasn't even cold! Good thing I answered the phone instead of my mom or anyone else. I'm the mean one of the family.

[ADeMartino]

What the Hell is wrong with people? How does this affect her life in any way? Why is she reading obituaries for people she doesn't even know?

Some people just can't wrap their head around the concept of 'live and let live'. To them, it's either THEIR way or NO way. They're often quick to condemn anything that's different and tend to hold some pretty narrow views of the world and the people in it. It is THESE people who create most of the problems in the world today. The best thing we can do is to start tuning them out.

[ADeMartino]

Another reason people read obituaries is to get a good deal on their possessions. Some jerk called about my dad's car when he died. Before the service... heck, the body wasn't even cold! Good thing I answered the phone instead of my mom or anyone else. I'm the mean one of the family.

Some 'direct salesman' read those things too. They like to read about how some guy passed away and left behind a widow, because in many cases, the grieving widow is perceived as an 'easy mark'. When my dad died in 2004, suddenly my stepmom was inundated with telemarketers, door-to-door salesman, and various mail offers for all sorts of generous offers scams. Though I doubt that was the case for the woman in the OP.