Monday, July 21, 2008

She Would Rather Have Had Jack in the Box

I have been reading the obituaries for years. It makes sense with the type of work I do now but it is truly something I have always done and kind of enjoyed in sort of a weird way. There are so many stories and so many interesting lives out there. So many people have done such amazing things and touched many other lives. It has always seemed like a nice way to honor someone's life.

However, in all my years of reading obituaries I have never run across something as . . . um, interesting as what I read over the weekend. Please allow me to share: "Longed to be preceded in death, yet was survived by ex-husband Jack. Penny was grateful for his current wife, Joann, who granted validation, heartfelt commiseration and a measure of peace."

What the hell?! What kind of S.O.B. was Jack? How bad did this Jack have to be to be called out in someone's obituary and to have someone clearly state their wish for you to die before they do? How awful must you have been to have someone need to talk about how your current wife validated her feelings and brought her peace about how she must have been treated? How tragic to carry such bitterness and anger to the grave with you. I will never know what happened here (but admit it, aren't you curious?) but I do know that carrying that much of a grudge and that much hurt must have been a horrible burden. I feel sorry for this woman. Of course there are three sides to every story and maybe she wasn't such a peach of a gal either.

3 comments:

Michael said...

Good title.

Fishergirl said...

I thought you were going to talk about tacos and stuffed jalepenos, not death. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, Jack in the Box sounds good right now.

Just Brilliant... said...

I'll bet there marriage was one great train wreck. I remember a story about one of the old studio owners dying and hundreds of people attended the funeral. Oscar Levant is reported to have said: "give the people what they want and they'll show up..." Maybe it was something along those lines.

Oh, I don't want to cause trouble but Heather will only read blogs with pictures, so you know what a pain in the ass that will be for everyone...thank goodness she never reads these things...