I read the obituaries every Sunday. It is not just because I am old now and waiting to see my own name. I do not know why I read them, except to say “he liked pickles”. I was reading one day and there was an obit about a man, he seemed to have lead a regular life. Worked at the same place forever, had been married for 50 years, had kids that said nice things about him, had a dog and he loved pickles. I don’t know why this stuck in my head, it just seemed a wonderful thing to remember about someone, that little tiny fact, it just seemed like every time they eat a pickle they will be thinking of him. This last week I read two that have become stuck in the place in the part of my brain that does not shut off.
The first was a woman, she was old, in her early 90’s. She had three children and had just died of old age. This in itself was not extraordinary in my mind, but it was the line that said “she was a devoted wife to her husband" again not out of the ordinary, but the fact that he died over 60 years ago, when she was 31 got me thinking. I just thought man, that must have been one big love or did he sour her so much that she just could not stand to expand the energy it takes to love another person? Did she just throw herself into raising her children? Questions, not answered in the obit.
The other one was a man, again nothing spectacular, school, marriage, kids, job. He also was old and had been married for a long time. He seemed to be the best salesman in the world, one of his proudest accomplishments was that he “sold California sand to Saudi Arabia” Huh? Isn’t Saudi Arabia sand? Seems to me there is a lot of desert there, why did they need our sand? Is California sand superior to the sand in Saudi Arabia?
I do wonder sometimes why you never see obits that say mean things. Not everyone can be nice and wonderful. There have got to be some out there that are mean miserable bastards, why do you never see that? He beat his wife, he left his kids, he was lazy and drank too much? You know they have to exist. Do you just not put an obit in about them or do you just play nice because they are dead? I know for a fact that you just don’t forget the person was a rat bastard, so what is the answer?
1 comment:
Re: The old lady. Who was even around then to witness whether she was devoted to her husband? She must have written it herself, because no one else would know that fact.
Re: salesman. That phrase is akin to "talk a starving dog off a meat wagon." I think its symbolic.
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