Writer's Block

The Dead Beat

I was having a slow day, so I grabbed the stack of obituaries and started typing. Writing up death notices may be intern work at larger papers, but here at The Maui News we just take turns. I've never minded the job.

Our obituaries follow a standard format and are pretty bare bones: name, where and when you died, services, date and place of birth, occupation, survivors. It's the barest sketch of a life, just enough to make you wonder the interesting and important questions. Questions like, "What did she die of?" "Did she have a happy life?" and just, "Who was she?"

I find myself thinking a lot about them while I'm writing their obituaries. A lot of times, I think about the day they were born, the mother, exhausted and joyful, full of the anticipation of her baby's long and happy life; the end of that life, the farthest thing from her mind.

Sometimes the obituaries make me smile. A few days ago I wrote an obit for a woman with 89 grandchildren -- 89! I had to call the mortuary to be sure it wasn't a type-o. What a blessed life. Then there are the odd names -- one family had 12 children, and all of them had names beginning with the letter "D." With nothing to go on but the list of names, I could only imagine the story behind that one.

Of couse, writing obits always makes you think about the day someone will be writing yours, and you wonder if those few details -- how long you lived, where you died, who survived you -- will tell the story you would want to be told about you.