Tuesday, December 16, 2008

In Loving Memory...

The toughest writing assignment of my life. Writing someone's obituary. Keep it short and sweet, yet, meaningful and poignant.

If you look at it like a formula, the first sentence (or paragraph if you are verbose like that) is easy; as are the last two, or three. Name, where and when born and/or died. A few sentences (or paragraphs) to sum up someone's lifetime. And then a few more easy sentences, who the deceased is survived by, preceded in death by, and the service information.

Those few statements to sum up someone's life are so intimidating. What would someone write about me? A few cliche's about being a wife, mother, daughter? Some personality traits? A fun memory? What if those things are really how you feel, but you don't want to seem to be treating it lightly or commonplace?

I don't have any grand answers, I am just pondering.

1 comment:

Kurt & Rachel Keyser said...

I agree, at 18 I wrote by Dad's obituary and eulogy...
http://keyserfamily.blogspot.com/2008/06/in-loving-memory-of-noel-f-smith-my.html