I suppose I started reading
the obituaries when I reached the age when some of my contemporaries might be
passing on. As I got older I kept reading them to see if
anyone from work (after I retired) or the retirement community where we now
lived was in it. Now that Im still older I look at them
because I like to read some, especially the longer ones that give a snapshot of
the lives of the persons who have recently departed.
Invariably, in a world that seems to have gone crazy, I find them
reassuring.
These are persons who
havent been activists (whatever that word means; is
activist an occupation?), who havent taken to the streets to
protest, who dont think the country they live in is inherently evil, who
didnt spend all their time on Twitter or Facebook. They
are persons who used to be thought of as the Silent Majority, or at
least I hope are still in the majority, persons who lived ordinary normal
lives, who married, had families, had a career, helped their communities, maybe
even practiced a religion, and all in all did good in their lives.
Its not difficult to
find such people. In fact, Im writing this on a Monday
and in yesterdays obituaries I found three. The first
one happens to be a woman who lived in my retirement
community. I didnt know her but would have liked
to.SG-- went to Palo Alto High School and was the first in her family to
graduate college, San Jose State.She took a job at Bakersfield High School and
taught shorthand, typing and English. During that time she
met her future husband and they married in 1960.
She earned her
Masters while raising five daughters. She re-entered
the workforce and taught word processing and other office personnel college
courses in the late 1970s and early 80s.There were few
textbooks in this emerging field so she wrote her own. After
her husband retired and many of their daughters married they moved to Sun City
where her time was filled with tennis, golf, bridge, travel and grandkid
adventures. She and her husband were married 55
years. Come to think of it, I may have met her on the tennis
courts. I hope so.
S--- S--- worked 39 years
for the State of California and received several awards for his
service. He was a faithful member of the Trinity Lutheran
Church. He was an avid golfer. He was
married 38 years. He and his wife traveled to Europe, went on
many cruises and trips to Carmel. He coached girls
softball and every year was elected head coach for the all-star
team. His daughters were always on the all-star team and he
was there to guide them.
R--- L--- lived in Northern
California all of his life. He was married 46
years. He retired from Pacific Bell/Pac Tel/AT&T after
over 38 years in telecommunications. He was devoted to his
family and friends and enjoyed life to the fullest be it fishing, boating or
traveling with his wife. He was active in and supportive of
YMCA, Special Olympics and the Childrens Receiving Home of
Sacramento.
As I wrote above,
just normal ordinary people who married and stayed married, who were devoted to
their families, who had productive careers, who supported their communities,
and so on.In what has become our world, reassuring to read about and certainly
much better reading than what passes for news in the rest of the paper.