Obituaries

Most people know that even before I started working at the monument place, I have always read the obituaries. Most people probably don't read them. At least most people that I know. The newspaper prints them for a reason and if you don't read them, then you won't know if someone you know or knew long ago passed away. I've informed family members for years that someone they've lost touch with has died. Former young loves, co-workers, neighbors and even family members that we've lost touch with (my dad's side).

Its very heartbreaking to read them sometimes. A baby, young child or teenager that should have had their whole lives ahead of them. Their lives abruptly cut short. I recently read that a young woman died while giving childbirth. So tragic. Even sadder when nothing is mentioned about Jesus. That is very tragic. I look for that. Reading someone's obituary can tell you a lot about that person's life.

I read the obituaries today when I came home from church (not right when I came home but as I was reading the local paper). A name stuck out to me but I didn't know why. I kept looking at it and then remembered. She was a 58 year old woman who had come into my work to order monuments for her parents last summer. I believe her mother had recently died of cancer and that her father had passed away several years prior. She herself was battling cancer. She wore a scarf over her hairless head. We never discussed beliefs but she was adamant that she wanted a certain carving on her mother's monument (she got separate ones for her divorced parents). It was of stairs leading to heaven with "when we all get to heaven" lettered on it.

I wonder if Rita's daughter will come in and now order a monument for her mother and what she'll have put on it. I also wonder if Rita, who had just recently been through the whole process of picking out a monument, at some point let her daughter know what she wanted on her own.

In her obituary it mentioned that she was a receptionist at a doctor's office, enjoyed camping, crocheting, crafts and reading. It also mentioned that she loved her grandchildren.