My obit
I was speaking to someone who is from New Orleans but moved up north for a while. She said she was surprised when she came back to New Orleans that she found all of her friends reading the Times Picayune obits. Her friends were in their 20s. I told her about the obit of the older woman who died whose family wrote that she made the best mirlton casserole and she said a friend of her’s mother said to her daughter go ahead and lie when you write my obit – this is New Orleans and no one is going to do the research, they’ll just sit around and say, “Did you know that Sallie Ann used to be a stripper?”
A friend in California hasn’t written his own obit but he has put in his will what he wants his tombstone to say – “Had a nice day.”
I was thinking about this when I was running yesterday and Amy Winehouse’s Valerie came on. I wondered when was the first time I heard that song, and I couldn’t remember. I thought about Amy, now dead, her talent couldn’t be contained in her waif body. And I thought you know I could see that if I did have any sort of funeral service what I would love is for everyone to take a moment of silence and then to crank up Valerie and flash dance right there on the spot.
I can tell you that when a friend of mine was cleaning out the house of a friend and found her huge dildo in the drawer, she had a smile on her face.
And I think the best life lived would be that those who remain when you die remember you and smile.