Funeral homes across the country are seeing more obituaries prepared before death.
Rick Waites, the director of Palm Beach National Chapel said that more people are turning to “pre-need” funeral planning by writing their own obituaries.
"Sometimes it's handwritten, typed, or they will bring a printout from a computer. The only thing missing is the date of death,'' he told local reporters. "They want to get their story across when they are gone and not leave it to other people."
Waites’ funeral home and others are providing resources to families to help them prepare their obits in advance.
Family caretakers are also taking the time to prepare obits for themselves and family members before the time of passing. Seventy-two year-old Ellen Gower started writing her own obit as well as one for her 78-year-old husband.
“When you write your own, you can fashion it as lightheartedly or as seriously as YOU would like, and hopefully the way it's written, in addition to the content, will help to convey a sense of who you were,'' Gower said.
