About Relationship Obituaries
My boyfriend and I broke up, break up sounds clean but for me it was guts mashed on the pavement after a car crash. Then two weeks later my dad dies. I leave and fly out to California to help make arrangements and grieve. As I write his obituary I'm surprised how oddly comforting it is because I can sort of see his life more in focus, if that makes sense with the beginning-middle-and-end right there like a real story. And that experience stayed with me - the obituary writing process - how it made my dad feel so real - even in death and helped me let him go too. So when I got home I packed up every particle of the diabolical nerd boyfriend and sealed it in a Hershey's syrup box at the top of the closet in the hopes of wiping him away and possibly waking up crying less - but I knew it wasn't going to be the cure I needed. So I started to write another obituary - this time for my relationship.
Laid the facts out just like I did with pop... How did it begin...what was the cause of death...who are the survivors...? It was a goofy thing to do, but it made it feel real so I could finally cremate the thing and move on. Maybe you'll have a similar experience with your obituaries. Like any life you're documenting list everything that made this one different from the others- all the funny and devastating details. And let us know what you think about the site.
Photo Credit: Stefano Giovannini