do you read the obituaries

[Pop Daddy]

I get online Sunday and read them for the last 7 days, at least I try, because ya just hate to miss it when someone you knew has died.

 

[powellrj]

We still get the local paper and I always read the obituaries! A few years ago I always read the birth announcements, but these days I always read the obituaries because at my age I know more people dying than having babies!

 

[Pop Daddy]

I dont think we have birth announcements, but even if we did, Im in your shoes

 

[MelanieC]

Nope - Cuz I never know anyone in them, lol. I didn't grow up around here.

 

[MsDisney23]

I get online Sunday and read them for the last 7 days, at least I try, because ya just hate to miss it when someone you knew has died.

I read them weekly...

 

[goofyernmost]

We still get the local paper and I always read the obituaries! A few years ago I always read the birth announcements, but these days I always read the obituaries because at my age I know more people dying than having babies!

I dont think we have birth announcements, but even if we did, Im in your shoes

Sigh!! Sad, but true!

 

[squirrlygirl]

One local paper I read online (from a former town) has a link to get the obituaries emailed daily to you, so it must be quite popular to read them regularly!

Our town has what DH and I call the "sign of death". It's a sign in front of the funeral home advertising upcoming funerals. We never paid much attention to it until one day it caught my eye and it was my former next-door neighbor on it. Now I can't drive by it without reading the name

 

[antmaril]

Yes, I try to read them every day. The Detroit New/Free Press now only delivers on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, so I have to remember to go online to check the Death Notices on the non-delivery days.

When my husband passed away last year, there were many people at his viewing who didn't even know he was ill. They saw the death notice in the paper. I think it's important.

 

[becpee]

I read them and i'm not old.

I read one for one of my old customers, she had dementia and no family and she reminded me alot of my grandmother, she was a dear old thing, I wanted to go to her funeral but had to go to another one interstate that same week

I think she had a paupers funeral, which is even sadder, as only her funeral notice was in the paper, no actual obituaries, she seemed to have no family to say goodbye to her.

 

[MidgeD79]

I read the obituaries daily from the newspaper. Until a year they were free, now there is a $50 charge.

 

[GeorgeG]

Yes. First, to make sure I'm not there. Second, I read them online for the paper where I lived most of my life to see if anyone I know died. That happens more frequently as you get older.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

My mother reads them every day. I only do if it's someone I knew (such as when my best friend's grandfather passed away last October, or when my friend passed away last week).

The hardest part is the tragic deaths, the young ones. To imagine that their parents or guardians have to put on their to-do list, "write (name's) obituary" is horrible.

 

[AmazingGrace]

yes, I read them first thing in the morning to make sure my name isn't listed. That's how i know i can plan for the day.

 

[lisajl]

Yes-I'm an amateur genealogist-so I love cemeteries and obits.

 

[raysnkaysmom]

I don't get the paper, but if someone leaves one at work, I skim the obituaries, but I mainly look for the ages, then I read if they are close to my age or younger..

 

[megthewonderful]

I read them in the Sunday newspaper only. My DH thinks is the most depressing thing I do each week, but I continue to do it.

 

[DisneyWalker44]

I wouldn't say I "read" them, but I don't make a point of glancing over them. It's a good reminder of our mortality; to not take life for granted.

I also find it interesting to see what picture people use - especially those who die at the end of a long life. Do they pick some thing recent? From when they were young? Most seem to use a picture showing them as "old," but younger than when they died.

 

[EMom]

I especially read them when I'm visiting my home town. DSis reads them and keeps me informed since she still lives there. A few years ago, she called and said she had read the obit of an old BF of mine and had cut it out to send to me. It just said he had died in the hospital, no cause of death. I felt so sorry for his mother. Her first child had committed suicide before I started dating the guy, back when the mom was only in her 30s. Now a second child was dead, leaving her with only one. I vaguely remembered that he might have had a heart condition, but I have no idea if that was the cause....I mean, I was 14 when he was my BF and memories fade. I remember his mom didn't want him playing sports because of it, but he did.

I also pay attention in cemeteries. We were trying to locate my great-grandfather's once, so we could put flowers on it. It's a BIG cemetery and his is hard to see. All of a sudden, I spotted two headstones next to each other, with pictures on each of two young men in their early 20s at most. I knew them. I had DH stop the car so I could look closer. They had been cousins of my old best friend from jr. high. (brothers) Back then, they lived in the next town over and were super popular....very handsome and made all the girls swoon. By the beginning of HS, when they were a year or two older than me, I heard the were getting into drugs, but so were lots of other people.......

Apparently, they REALLY got into drugs. Their lives went downhill. I figured when I saw the headstones that the two of them had died together in a wreck or something. But it turns out they overdosed separately with a short time and were both dead by their early 20s. These guys went from having it all (popular, gorgeous, well-to-do family) to being handsome faces on a tombstone. It was such a waste. They were the only children their parents had, I think.

 

[Philagoofy]

Yes, I do. I usually look for the age & then, if they're under 60 I try to get an idea of what they may have died from by seeing the charity they prefer donations go to.

I also read the online expression of sympathy that people can write in. They are ususally kept online for a year but there is one that I check on from time to time that's been there almost 4 years now. The wife & children write to the husband/father. It's sometimes heartbreakingly sad. He died suddenly around 40 years old. They update him on what's going on in their lives & how much they still miss him.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

I read them all the time. DH's family is notorius for not telling us when some family member has passed. This is the only way I ever find out.