365 Days (Part 2) | ✓

237. Obituaries

237. Obituaries: Look at the recent obituaries online or in the newspaper and imagine the life of someone and write about that person.

And on today's "Search history of a writer" -- obituaries! (If anyone ever looked at my search history, I would have some serious explaining to do.)

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There's a picture of her in the corner, angled toward the wooden pews. In it she's laughing, her mouth slightly open and her eyes looking somewhere beyond the camera. In it she's beautiful, young, and carefree.

I wonder how many truths and how many lies are in that single picture. Was she really that happy? Did her eyes really have so much light in them? Did the photographer know the pretty girl he snapped a picture of dealt with demons she couldn't conquer in the end?

She was 23.

Obituaries are so cold. I shake my head as I read hers. It's plain and simple, listing only the barest facts of her short life. Nothing in the emotionless lines tell me who she is. None of it account for the sobbing people packed into the church. For who else but one who had stolen your heart would you cry for?

I would rewrite it if I could. This obituary tells nothing about her small kindnesses, how she gave of herself, how she gave you the love you so desperately sought. She was the kind of person who gave. There's nothing in this summary of her life to indicate that.

The '"survived part" hits me the hardest. It doesn't mention how stunned her surviving siblings are. It doesn't mention how devastated her parents are to have survived longer than her child -- or her grandparents. It doesn't say one single word on how hard it will be for them to survive without her.

It doesn't mention how she died and why, either. It says nothing of the desperation of her last moments. Or how even though everyone had her, she didn't feel like she had any of them. It says nothing.

She lies in a cherry wood coffin, wearing the same dress she wore to her cousin's wedding. Her hair is curled and lies around her peaceful face.

I wonder where she is now. I pray God has overlooked the murder of herself and can take her. I do so pray.