My wife is adamant – no funeral, no obituary, no nothing. Maybe a few friends over for drinks and stories. The only thing she wants is a bench on the Burke-Gilman Trail where bikers and walkers can stop and catch their breath. It’s where she ran, rode, and walked for more than 40 years.
So, how about you, she asks? Do you want an obituary? How about a funeral? I tell her I haven’t given it much thought. Well, she says, you need to, because if you go first, I need to know. She’s a successful business woman, but at heart she’s a family planner, a garden designer and household manager. Always organizing something or someone, especially me.
For the most part, we think alike about things like life and death. The exception is obituaries. On Sunday, we get two newspapers, my New York Times and her Seattle Times. Before she gets up I steal the Opinion section of her paper because it includes the obits. It may be morbid, but I need to know who’s making a final appearance.
If my family planner, garden designer, household manager goes first, I’m going to disobey and write an obit anyway. It’ll piss her off, but what’s she gonna do? Her many friends will need to know. If I go first, she’s told me I have to write my own.
I’m fascinated by the genre. I often read a NY Times obit even when it’s someone I’ve never heard of. It’s an art form. But I’m definitely against the paid version submitted by family members. They’re usually cloying hagiography – either nominations for sainthood or lists of every school, organization, and occupation the deceased came in contact with. I’m old school. I think its purpose is to summarize for identity purposes and to notify friends… to prevent them from doing something stupid like calling up and asking how is so and so?
So… here goes.
I’ve lived a long time and loved most of it. I have three children and eleven grandchildren. I’ve loved all three of my wives, and four of my five careers. My favorite things are writing, flying, my guitar, my books, burgers, bike touring, skiing, tennis, Duncan the Gordon Setter, and cookie dough in that order. My favorite food was pasta—preferably my own. My favorite drinks were Mac and Jack’s African Amber, Rangpur Tanqueray martinis, and long shots of Jose Cuervo’s La Familia Anejo Tequila.
My favorite jobs were father, husband, and grandfather. My favorite occupations were writer, pasta maker/restauranter, Marine fighter pilot, Pan Am pilot, Saigon NGO manager, Seattle Public Schools fundraiser. My least favorite was being a lawyer.
The Sunday Review in this week’s New York Times (August 29, 2021) includes an Op-Ed by Kate Bowler an Associate Professor at the Duke Divinity School entitled “One Thing I Don’t Plan to Do Before I Dies Is Make a Bucket List.” It turns out Ms. Bowler, who hitherto described herself as an “incurable optimist,” was recently diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer with “a slim chance of survival.”
My chances of survival are about the same as hers, but for different reasons. I’m 83 and she’s 38 (curious reversal of numbers). I’m sending her all the good juju I can muster. We need more incurable optimists.
We agree on bucket lists. The idea is meant to be aspirational, a list of experiences a person hopes to accomplish in his or her lifetime, but there is something inherently sad behind it. I like to think of my bucket as something I add to and can look-back on with satisfaction not an unfulfilled need. I have no regrets about things undone. There is always room in my bucket for a novel or book of essays, but whatever goes in is not because it’s missing something and needs pumping up.
When I look into my bucket, I see so many good things that have been part of my life. Three healthy accomplished children. Eleven healthy grandchildren. A worldwide network of friends. A solid education. Charity work. Carrier landings. Supersonic dogfights. Deep powder runs. Bike tours on three continents. A business that fed people. Selling books that fed them in other ways. Arthur Ashe winning the US Open. Barack Obama becoming President of the United States. Life in five countries on three continents. Marriage to a woman who loved me unconditionally, overlooked my flaws, and rode across a live artillery range on the Salisbury Plain and up to all those hill towns in Italy with only a minimum of complaint. Better than I deserved.
Postscript: She got her bench for Christmas in 2021. Why wait until she’s dead? She loves it.
Jack—
You are such a poignant writer. I really related to this piece. Fortunately you are only 83 and will be writing many more of these powerful messages.
I’ll save God speed for your future event
Good one, Jack. We’re printing this and putting in on file, just in case we’re the ones who will need to send it to the newspaper.
And now how about crafting something satirical, just for fun, for a fictional character? I get so tired of those “died after a courageous battle with…” statements. I long for something silly like “gave up after a cowardly brush with the flu” or some such. Are you game?
Gravestones are also fascinating to read (and view)