PEOPLE have sometimes asked why obituaries, particularly in the big metropolitan papers, seem to be less frequent these days. My answer to that is the fault lies with the communities and the newspapers.
Newspapers used to keep files of their notables, stories and biographical information held ready for a write-up when they died. Digital storage and databases have rendered these redundant, although at the Time-Age we still have the existing ones, an alphabetical chunk saved from the dismantling of the newspaper's library. In fact, a librarian put them together. That's a job that's gone. But it's also the fact that these days the longevity of a person is not matched by the longevity of people in the newsroom.
People don't stay in one media job for 20 years and thus bear witness to a natural cycle of life and death in the community. I am lucky at the Times-Age in that I have staff who have been here long enough to instantly put together a tribute. But that's rare.
This is where we need the help of the family, as we can no longer be as remote. Newsrooms these days do not have the time to undertake the research. This is why we ask if we can attend funerals. It's why we knock on the door. A newspaper connected as closely as the Times-Age to its community will inevitably know the person who has died, but possibly not much.
Funeral services are a special tribute with great meaning.