TheBanyanTree: The Area's Favorite Bartender

[Julie Anna Teague]

Quoting Monique Colver <monique.colver at gmail.com>:

>  I've started obituaries, several times, before the
> person in question was actually deceased, when people said, "Better start on
> that obituary," but I can't write an obituary when the person is alive, on
> their way out the door (or portal, or what have you) but still a part of
> this world.

I think I've told several of you this, but maybe not in this forum.  My 
husband, Lee, and I indulge in some rather macabre humor.  We write (or 
rather recite aloud) ficticious obituaries for each other.  We tease 
each other, "Remember, if you go first, I get to write your obituary."

"Lee Robert Schmid died peacefully in his sleep after a long battle 
with gum disease.  He is survived by his lovely child bride, Julie."

"Julie Anna Teague has gone to be with Jesus.**  Memorial contributions 
can be made to the Irritable Bowel Research Foundation of America."

**a popular sentiment in Indiana obits, along with "gone to meet his 
maker" and "gone to sit at the right hand of the Lord".

Some might consider this sick humor.  I don't know.  We've both looked 
death in the face in our lives, been a little closer than was entirely 
comfortable, and have some clarity on the fact that we ARE looking 
death in the face every day that we wake up alive.  What are you gonna 
do except find something funny in the situation and go about your life, 
one day at a time, with humor and love and grace?  I guess this is our 
way of diffusing some of the fear of the inevitable.

Julie