ATLANTA - There's no reason to believe Francie Mooney hasn't got a lot more living to do.
And yet for the past year, she and her 87-year-old mother, Lucy Lynch, have been busy preparing for death, convinced that the best way to leave behind a meaningful and complete summary of their lives is to write it themselves.
In doing so, they are among a growing number of people here and across the globe who are penning their own obituaries.
Mooney, 62, of Riverdale, bought the "ObitKit: A Guide to Celebrating Life" shortly after her husband's death in 2008 for herself and dozens of family members and friends.
"You drive through the cemetery and all you see on tombstones is the person's name, their birthday and date they died," Mooney said. "The ObitKit forces you to go beyond that and to be a bit more reflective." Prewritten obituaries can be a way for people to spare family members from having "to burden themselves with making decisions when they're heartbroken," said Susan Soper, a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor who created the "ObitKit."
People are also reading…
Lori Brown, an associate professor of sociology at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., said the trend is a fairly recent phenomenon.
"Rules or what we call norms about etiquette and appearing to be self-promoting probably prevented this in the past," she said. "But the Internet and social media are all about self-promotion, and my guess is that this is connected to that trend."
That is what inspired Soper to write the "ObitKit" and David McConkey of Canada to launch her website, obituaryguide.com.
McConkey said the site is a resource for people who recognize the importance of planning and want to write their own obituary.
In 2004, Soper began culling together the "ObitKit." The workbook was featured on the AARP website and available at www.obitkit.com.
obituary tips
• Just get started. No matter how incomplete it is, it will be of benefit to others.
• Read other obituaries for ideas.
• Say what your life means to you. This part may be hardest for others to describe if you don't.
• Find three words that would aptly sum up your life and conclude your obituary.
• Use this project as an opportunity to make those other arrangements such as a "living will" and funeral wishes or to expand into a longer memoir or family history that you can leave to your descendants.
• Include a recent photo.
• Inform your next of kin where your obit and funeral wishes are stored so they will be available when needed.
Source: www.obituaryguide.com
