Here Lies . . . You!

I participated in a writing contest/challenge this week. It was like none I’ve ever done. The challenge was to write our obituary. Yes, our very own obituary.

I can hear y’all screaming. I’m not dead . . . yet.

Odd? Kinda creepy?  Yeah, me too.

But I did it.

This idea was prompted by two of the best writing teachers/coaches out there, Eddie Jones and Diana Lee Flegal. Eddie attended his uncle’s funeral, and as he sat with the program in hand, he began to read the words about his uncle. Eddie immediately knew his uncle had penned his own obit. It sounded just like the things he’d heard his uncle say over the years. This idea was soon birthed.

WRITING FAMILY OBITS

Years ago my sister and I wrote our Mama’s (1996) and then, our Daddy’s (2012) obituaries. Then, last November, I was asked to write my sister’s. My nieces added to Sis’s, and I’m glad they did. We each knew things the others didn’t.

Obituaries are difficult when it’s our loved one we are remembering. The thing is, make it personal. Don’t just cite organizations they’d joined or things they’d done in ministry work. Find those little tidbits that made your loved one unique among all the people God placed on this earth.

UNIQUELY MAMA, UNIQUELY PAPA

I wish I’d done that for my parents. There were so many things we could have said about Mama. One thing we did include was how gifted she was in so many areas. Other than her cooking (she only made party food, I wrote a blog about this), she was so like a famous TV personality that my sister and I dubbed her, The Martha Stewart of the South. She made all our clothes, including semi-formals and formals. All the draperies in our homes were hand-made by Mama. Not just simple little slip-on-the-rod cafe-style, but major drapery with swags and jabot.

But I didn’t include how she played basketball when in high school. How she taught as a substitute at her old high school and took me with her on those days. Left out were her many accomplishments like learning she had a gift for painting in her later years. She had a beautiful soprano voice (thank you, Mama, for passing that to me).

Daddy’s included things like serving in WWII and jumping on Corregidor with the 503^rd Airborne. But we didn’t include how he entertained us by jumping over the coffee table when we were just little girls. That he was the one to give us our baths and say our prayers with us every night. That he was the one who got up in the middle of the night to administer that next dose of medicine.

See, Mama was sickly all of my life. When she was pregnant with me, she became asthmatic. Severely so. In fact, I spent my third birthday at her bedside in the hospital in Panama City, Florida. She was so ill, that they’d brought Sissy and me to say our final goodbyes. Ultimately, it was this condition that brought about her untimely death.

Thankfully, Mama lived until age 73. Way too young to leave this earth. In two months, I’ll be that same age, and I know just how young she felt. Just writing this makes me weep for the loss of so many years.

Here Lies - You @DDuPreeWilliams #writing #faith #writingcommunity Share on X

UNTIL THAT DAY

Once the contest is over, I’ll post a bit of the obit I wrote for myself. I actually wrote two. One was serious, the other much more lighthearted. Both capture my heart and the essence of who I am. One made my husband cry, the other made him laugh out loud. Frankly, he hated hearing either one, but I told him writing that wasn’t going to change my appointed day of death by one millisecond. God already knows that day.

Until then, we’re enjoying life together. Before our feet hit the ground, we thank God for another day on this earth. After getting a bit more awake with coffee for him and hot tea for me, we join in our daily Bible study. Our days are spent doing life. Sometimes apart, like now as I write this, but often together.

Just a simple trip to the grocery or a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway can be times of praise. We thank God for the ability to have food in our home, a roof over our heads, good friends, a loving family. And we always stand in awe of God’s creation on the BRP drives.

If you were to write your obit, what would you say? What would you want your children, family, and friends to know about you? Let me challenge you to give it a go, then, share a line or two from it with us.

 

Blessings, y’all!

Glory!! By the end of this, my hands were raised and tears were streaming down my face. What an anointed voice! Add this to my requests at the end of my obit, please! Soli Deo Gloria!