Are You Reading the Obituaires Daily?

I guess being able to work from home does have its advantages. For instance, I have the freedom to work in my pajamas and not brush my hair if I chose to. I can also place my ponytail on my desk while I am taking calls, and still sound perkie and professional. I imagine that the person on the other line is thinking that he/she is talking with a professionally dressed, beautiful young woman. They are wrong! I am professional, but I am not professionally dressed.

One of the other benefits of working from home and being my own boss is being able to surf the net and still get paid. Each day, I make sure that I am reading the OBITS section of the Wilmington Star News, or the Pender Post online. I really just started this ritual a few months ago when I found out that several of my distant relatives had passed away. For some strange reason, I found out about their deaths at random from old school mates, who assumed that I had already known about them. They casually walked up to me in Piggly Wiggly and asked me why I was not at the funeral. You can only imagine the respondse that I gave to them.

I went through a short phase of righteous anger as I wondered my some of my "people" did not bother to call me and fill me in on what is going on in my home town. These same "people" are very quick to contact me whenever they need a church offering, or whenever they need someone to fill up space in their often vacant pews at church. Selfish is the word. So, instead of becoming angry and trying to hunt down all of my "people" and yell, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT COUSIN SO-N-SO WAS DEAD???" at each of them, I decided to just read the OBITS daily.

One thing for sure, the newspapers in my part of the world do not lie. And I can always read them online. Now in the future if one of my relatives passed away, I will have a heads up. I will be able to send a card, or attend the funeral and show them that I still care. Afterall, that is what we are supposed to do.

I hate to admit it, but sometimes I love reading the OBITS. I love to read about the life of the deceased who has already crossed over.(I am not judging. The Lord only knows where they landed!) I love to read about strangers who have crossed over in another city or state. I guess that is the writer in me. However, I hate reading about the death of a child or young person.

Reading the OBITS has helped me to see that there are other people in the world who need someone to pray for them while they are hurting and grieving. Reading the OBITS helps me to keep up with my old classmates. I can find out where they have moved to, and what their new last names are. That's pretty cool ! Isn't it?

There is nothing morbid about reading the OBITS. Some people read the classifieds, I just read the OBITS. They keep me more informed than my own "people" do.

(c) 2007 by Janice M. Chambers