Writing your own obit

When I was a very young reporter assigned to write obituaries, an elderly colleague (a woman of about 45) gave me some good advice.

“If you want to be sure you get a good obit in the paper, write it yourself!”

Which, lately, a lot of us have been doing. At least in our heads. Regardless of age, sex, health, whether we are still working or retired, most if not all of us are looking at a worst case scenario if we get “it”, and don’t survive, “it!”

At some point most people realize , for the first time, they are not immortal. That their time is limited. That one of these days — despite family, friends, kids and grandchildren, a paid up mortgage and a low-mileage car — this is all going to end. But this is the first time in any of our lifetimes that we have all faced our mortality at the same time. The realization that this could be it. We are all, literally, in the same boat. Turns out the inevitable could be very soon. As in days or weeks. And what happens when/if that happens. The planning we meant to do someday may be long overdue. What if this is someday?

We don’t have a cure or vaccine. Yet. But we’ve got maybe the next best thing for you. A top-notch pilot and navigator to help us, in a sense, write our own obit. And make it a good one. I asked Tom O’Rourke to be my guest on Wednesday, April 14 on our Your Turn radio show.