Our obituaries were written by family members, as we would have done anyway, but circumstances would have led to it even if we hadn't planned to do it ourselves. I wasn't impressed with the writing skills of the woman who was taking care of our needs at the funeral home when I handled my father's arrangements, so I went straight to the newspaper, as did my sister when she handled mom's estate. I suspect that mom wrote much of her own obituary anyway, and Katy formalized it when she took it to the paper. We didn't do funerals for either one, but got together later at informal gatherings of friends and family, potlucks included. There was a song circle at Dad's event (quite a few Mudcatters were there). So it may be our general rejection of the funeral industry (both were cremated and neither was interested in enriching a funeral home, especially when chapels would be involved and neither of them practiced a formal religion).

More and more I see people taking it out of the hands of the church and the business end of things and doing a "celebration of life" at a convenient park or meeting hall or home.

SRS