Writing your own obituary...

I've threatened many times to save a draft of my obituary on my blog to be published only after I passed. Jackson thinks that idea is so creepy that I've never done it. After reading this obituary, though, I've decided to start working on it just in case. You see, I've never read something quite so touching.

I was listening to the radio this morning (I rarely do that in the morning as the news is always so depressing) when I heard about this actor who had recently passed away due to skin cancer. They were only covering his death because he'd written his own obituary. I looked for it when I got to work, read it and cried like a baby. What a great reminder about what truly matters to us when we reach the end...

http://stpauljerseycity.org/stpaul/2014/03/24/in-memory-of-jim-rebhorn/#hislife

My favorite part was this: "They deal with grief differently, and they should each manage it as they see fit. He hopes, however, that they will grieve his passing only as long as necessary. They have much good work to do, and they should get busy doing it. Time is flying by."
The radio folks thought it was bad luck to write your own. I disagree. Why wouldn't we write our own goodbyes? If death gives me the two weeks' notice I've always requested for it to, you better believe a few of my hours would be spent penning my goodbye to the world. I might as well save myself some of those precious hours.Whether or not this prompts you to write your own obituary, I hope it serves as a good reminder to appreciate all that makes you who you are. It made me wonder how many of us could write that everyone we loved knew that we loved them. I hope we all could, but I'm not so sure that is true. Jackson and I heard a song the other day and one of the lines says the singer isn't afraid of dying (OK, it is an Eminem song, but it is still touching). I asked Jackson if he was afraid of dying. He said he was not. He asked me. I said I was petrified. I cannot help but wonder if part of my fear comes from feeling like I have unfinished business to attend to. I've always thought it was just the fear of the unknown, but when I tried to explain to Jackson why I was afraid it didn't have much to do with that and more to do with making sure I didn't have regrets. I need to work on that. But first, if you'll excuse me, I need to go grab more Kleenex.