Preceded in death by George Washington
I like to read obituaries. It’s the first part of the local paper I turn to and I check the NYT obituaries almost daily. Here’s something I don’t understand: the obituaries in local papers seem to state as a matter of course, “preceded in death by his/her parents” no matter how old the dead person is. A guy can be 105 years old and, sure enough, there’s the statement, “preceded in death by his parents.” Do we really need to be told this? If we’re reading about somebody this old, would the question ever come to mind, “Gee I wonder if his parents are still living?” If the writer of the obituary really wants to mention these long ago dead people, why not put birth and death dates when the parents are first noted. And if for some reason the parents are still alive (can’t they be mentioned in the “survived by….”section (or maybe the reader could be directed to the Guinness Book of World Records.
P.S. As you can see, this is a “desperation blog” (posting something so my blog doesn’t dry up and blow away from disuse.)
P.S. As you can see, this is a “desperation blog” (posting something so my blog doesn’t dry up and blow away from disuse.)
posted by unca | 7:06 AM
10 Comments:
what i hate is that they seldom give you enough juicy details about how the person died. i want to know why he died at 42. especially if i might have the same thing -- whatever it was -- that he had...
Yes, I agree. And why not more articles like this one? [warning, some profanity]
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29585
That article had me going until I noticed it was from The Onion “Duh”
I like to read obituaries too.
Maybe they should start teaching the proper way to write an obituary in all the schools.
However I doubt that the kids would get a lot of enthusiastic help from their parents on this subject.
“Hey dad can you help me practice writing your obituary?”
Actually, I think some teachers do assign the topic of writing your own obituary. In some instances it's caused some conflict and controversy.
Reading obits can be addicting. If you go to legacy.com you can search for all your old friends who may or may not be dead . . . better than looking at porn, i guess.
They actually don't write that on a regular basis in Hawaii Obits. There are times when I think it should be written, however. My brother-in-law's sister died recently at the age of 37 and they lost both of their parents in the last 10 years. I think it is appropriate to use preceded in death by her parents when they die young like this.
When an obituary is written to include "preceded by death" it should only mention the spouse of the deceased. I believe the person who wrote the obit wants to make all family members happy by giving them the opportunity to see their names in print at the time. I consider that very tacky.
The obituary should be about the deceased's accomplishments in life. Where they were born, graduated from high school,college,career,and last address. It should then only mention immediate family survivor's
names, # of grandchildren, and # of great grand children.
It should be in print at least 2-3 days prior to visitation so people can make plans to be there.
I've seen so many misuses of obits it's severly crude. Raunchy nicknames mentioned, other sleazy comments etc.
Anyway that's how it's supposed to be done for those who need to know the right way.
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I think it is very useful information. I am Native American descent. It is nice to know who the person was or was born to. Younger generations get to see who and where they came from. Especially, if someone who gets older and never knew the person. And if they see the obituary it gives them some background on themselves to pass on to future generations.
A friend of mine just died recently and I actually looked up the phrase lol I wasn't entirely sure what "preceeded in death" meant.
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