Obituaries

[Kobi]

Having been in health care for so long, I got into the habit of reading the obits. It was always an eye opener to see the lives of those I had cared for but knew little about unfold in print.

It used to be that obits were a compilation of facts. Nowadays, many seem to be more personalized, more of a tribute to the person by those who seemingly knew them best.

But, I wonder how the folks in our community are represented in obits. Here in Mass, I have seen spouses of our community members do both a narrative of facts or a tribute or a combination of the two.

I have seen those without spouses whose family of origin has elected to stick to the facts.

I am troubled by the latter. A case in point is a member of our own site, Lieslgrrl or LieslKate, who died a couple of weeks ago. Her obit was what I expected to be written by a family of origin. It was factual but did little to reflect the person I knew.

As an older, single person, I have taken care to be sure "my house" is in order. Now, I am thinking it might be best to write my own obit, so it reflects what I would want it to say.

I am wondering if others have any thoughts on this or if they have encountered similar feelings.