Writing An Obituary

Research has found that preparing ones own obituary can often prove to be therapeutic, not only for the individual, but for the family as well. By drafting the obituary in advance, the family can often begin to come to terms with the pending death and help begin to process the emotions which will ensue.

It can also be a sense of pride for the individual and their family to look back on the accomplishments of a life. Too often, obituaries are drafted by family members hastily in an effort to finalize all the arrangements. Although they have good intentions, the obituaries read as generic recaps of life, blending in with all the others appearing in the newspaper. Many times, the family leaves this task to the funeral director, who may never have known the individual and only had sketchy biographical information to go on.

Everyone’s life story, no matter how seeming simple, is worth telling. We find the families who initially think there is not much to say are surprised to see how much there is to tell about their loved one if there is no time to think about it. An obituary need not be overly long or verbose to be meaningful.

As part of our services, we take care of submitting obituary and paid death notices to local newspapers in Massachusetts. The family is responsible for placement and submission of out-of-state obituaries and notices. If not properly prepared, a fee of $60 will be charged to write the obituary.

Families may submit obituaries directly to the newspaper. However, because of formatting policies and content guidelines vary from one paper to the next, we suggest that obituaries be submitted by us. In addition, all obituaries we submit will be posted to our obituary section of our web site.

If you would like to submit an obituary, you may email it to us. Please specify which Massachusetts newspapers you would like us to submit the obituary. Please keep in mind that the editors of each paper have the final say as to when an obituary will run and how it will be worded.