Last Words

Mornings at work are usually pretty slow, so I grab a current copy of the newspaper and flip through. I look at the front page, and it’s usually all old news since I watch the news before going to bed most nights. I flip to the Tri-County section to make sure our neighborhood didn’t have anything major on the crime report. I eventually flip over to the comics, too. (Who doesn’t like “Family Circus”?) A growing habit of mine, though, is checking the obituaries.

Today’s obituaries had a very interesting entry. (I will add for those inquisitive minds, that I write these a few weeks in advance, so you’ll have to do some real researching here if you want to find this.) In what has to be the longest obituary I’ve ever seen, over an entire column was devoted to this one lady who passed away. The obituary was written so eloquently. It began with how the lady died, listed her brothers and sisters who had preceded her in death, listed her survivors – all five of her children, discussed her life in detail almost like a curriculum vitae, and then ended with her faith in God. The whole piece was moving, because one could tell this woman was loved. She touched the lives of others.

Obituaries are like last words. They can be quite memorable and revealing. I can’t help but wonder sometimes – when it’s my time to go, what will others write about me? Would it be something I would have been proud to read? Did my life make a difference to those around me? It’s a very thought-provoking question. If there’s anything of which I would be ashamed, now is the time for me to fix that. I’m essentially writing my obituary everyday. Perhaps this is horridly morbid on my part, but we don’t know when it will be our time. I look at it as a great opportunity to set things right. How’s your obituary coming? Is there anything you need to rewrite?