TheBanyanTree: The Area's Favorite Bartender

[Monique Colver]

I'm a big believer in macabre humor and practice it myself. But when's
someone dying in the next room it's a bit different -- listening to the
sound of their breathing interferes with the humor process. People say death
and taxes are the only two certainties in life, but I've seen people get out
of taxes. Birth and death, on the other hand, are the only two things that
everyone has in common, and I don't fear it death -- I just hope it's damn
entertaining when I go. Make sure you put something funny in my obit.

Monique

On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 6:22 PM, Julie Anna Teague <jateague at indiana.edu>wrote:

> 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
>
>