NYMYSTERIES.COM January 8, 2022

Writing your obituary? Why not? What else would you do on a Friday night? 

GOT = Getting Older Together is a group of women mostly who attend Judson Memorial Church. The  meetings are held in our homes. There’s a moderator and/or an authority on the evenings’ subject matter. Yesterday at 6 p.m. we zoomed to Bethene Trexel’s and Jon Tenney’s house. Kay Cassell was the moderator who suggested we write our own obituaries. She listed three essential elements of an obituary: l. Name, age, date of birth and of death. Cause of death is optional. 2. Where you lived, single, married history, family, profession, hobbies, passions. 3. Listing survivors.

There were about 35 people attending the session. Many, like me, were flummoxed by our own ignorance. Kay suggested we keep the obituary to 200-300 words and include a recent photo. Read obituaries!

This led to other discussions about New York laws concerning burials and cremation. Several people recalled the death of a spouse or other family member and how dependent they were on funeral directors and the clergy. 

Many thanks to Kay for leading us through this process.