We live in a block of flats. Anyone who is familiar with the communist regime and post-communist development knows what block of flats are – 7- to 16-story panel buidings without insulation between the apartments where every resident can hear their neighbors boiling an egg or going to the toilet… These buildings have a common metal entrance. Today, while we were going home, there was an obituary on the entrance door and it wasn’t there in the morning when we left. Sticking obituaries to front doors, trees, fences or street pillars is another weird “tradition” in our country. As if bragging with someone’ death.. Or we just want the whole world to know and to share our pain, I don’t know.

A 29-year old resident had passed away this morning. I knew him, my husband used to have a beer with him every summer night on the bench in front of our block. A guiet boy, having his whole life ahead of him. A 29-years old. The information on the obituary says he suffered a long-term illness and we were all shocked. None of us knew anything about it. Was it some chronic condition, or was it a pneumonia complication? It doesn’t matter actually what the cause was. The fact is that he’s gone at such an early age. He had a future, a whole lifetime waiting for him but obviously Someone else had other plans for him. It’s not fair to lose a life like this. Each one of us, at the beginning of our mature life, makes plans about the future – who we’d like to become, what we want to do, we think of life goals and achievements, of having a family, of leaving a legacy behind. And we all believe we will have the time to do it. We are so certain we’re going to live long enough to achive our goals that we take a lot of things and people in our lives for granted. We’d forgotten to cherish the little things.

And one day something like this strikes us like a tornado. May be it’s meant to remind us how transient we are, to teach us a lesson to cherish and respect each other more and to live every day as if it’s our last. Maybe it’s meant to pull out the best of us. No matter what this event’s purpose was, it didn’t seem fair to the family. No parent should outlive their children. Each family must be given the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. Besides, every individual must be given the chance to have a good and decent life, long enough to leave something behind, not just a memory.

Otherwise I’d name death an insult to life.

You’re walking in the streets. Somebody, walks up next to you and spits on the sidewalk. Pleasant walk right?

There’s always people smoking. Sure there’s nicotine and they can’t help it but it’s your children,your parents and YOU who they’re killing. Or you could be the killer. If your a smoker, why don’t you think that the next time you light a cigarette.

Cars. You can’t stress this enough. They need electricity and petrol. Petrol is UNRENEWABLE. Why can’t you understand that? And all these new cars. Crushing them into tiny squares doesn’t destroy it. Just another waste of energy. So pay for your expensive cars. Go waste your hard work for it’s fuel.

Building roads was a sweet idea. Or that is until your bills increased for pot holes. Having dirt roads aren’t that bad. It’s just Earth.

Gum is annoying. It doesn’t decompose. It’s almost as bad as a plastic bag. And people spit it everywhere. On public transport. Tables. Everything.

So next time you step into the street, don’t throw the can on the floor. Put it in recycling. And you won’t have to write your own obituary.

Granted. You are either jobless or looking for a better job. Finding your dream job may not be easy but for God loved you so much, he or she made you come across this article that you may find your dream job without any more troubles. How can you find your dream job without struggling?

Don’t wait for companies to advertise!

It is simple. To find your dream job, you should stop waiting for companies to advertise for available opportunities and instead start reading the obituaries. When you come across anyone that died while working for a certain company, all you have to do is to cut that obituary, if the newspaper belongs to you and write two letters.

Write two letters and attach the obituary

One of the letters you write, the first one in fact, must be the one offering your condolences to the company, family and friends of the deceased and of course assure them of your total support in this hour of grief. Write a second letter requesting for any opportunity that may have arisen due to the untimely demise of one of their best employees. Promise to work harder than he or she did for the company’s success.

You will be among the first applicants!

The benefits of such an application are obvious. The company executive, unless it is him or her that died, will find you honest enough and deserving of the job. You will also be among the first ones if not the first one to apply for the position since you will have done so before burial or cremation.

Start reading those obituaries now!

Are you to the task? Start searching for your dream job now; I am sure someone must have died in your area of expertise for it is all there in the obituaries, the pages that many people do not read unless they have lost a close friend, a family member or an acquaintance.

Obituaries are written by a journalist on the newspaper staff. Their information source is the executor of the estate or a family member that is grieving. When inteviewed, this person draws a blank. The journalist will prompt by asking questions:

• What did _________ do for a living?
• What did _________ do in his spare time/retirement?
• Was ________ in the military?
• Are there any awards or citations _______ has earned?

A grieving person is not in a good frame of mind to answer these questions.

I remember reading an obituary of a 92 year old woman. The headline under her name was “An Avid Bingo Player.” Ninety two years and all they could come up with is what she did during her final years in a nursing home? She had outlived family members. There was no one to remember her life.

Make it a New Year’s resolution to update your own obituary. You look back over the past year and measure up your goals with your actions. You may also update your will. Add your obitituary to your important papers where it will be found upon your death. Make your remembrance one you are proud of.

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On April 20, 2009 at the grand old age of 120 years old, Chris Stonecipher Sr. passed away in his Oak Harbor, Washington’s home. He is survived by his wife Jeanette Stonecipher who is 126 years old, his daughters Jessica Stonecipher-Husband Name who is 99 years old, Lauren Stonecipher-Husband Name who is 96 years old and his only son Chris Stonecipher II who is 93 years old. Chris Sr. has 6 grandchildren, two from each of his daughters and son. Chris Sr.’s grandchildren are in their mid sixty’s and reside in Port Hope, Michigan. Chris’s grandchildren never had children.

Chris Allen Stonecipher Sr. graduated with his Master’s degree in Social Science in 1903. He enlisted in the Marine Corp as a Horse Marine on November 1, 1911 at the age of 21 years old. A Horse Marine is a marine assigned to the cavalry. He fought in World War I in 1917-1918. Chris spent the next 45 years advocating for the people with disabilities and was a Nobel Prize winner. Most of all, Chris wanted to be remembered as a person who accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior and also a loving husband and father.

Image via Wikipedia

     According to Wilcox (2009), if I died today at the age of 120 years old, Burley Funeral Chapel in Oak Harbor, Washington has a burial package that includes basic burial, service and embalming for $7,215. An oak casket is approximately $4,595.00 and a six foot tall standing headstone is $20,000. The total price of my funeral is $31,810. I have made a fortune in my lifetime and I knew I was passing soon. I helped my great grandchildren plan my funeral last week. My head stone reads Chris A. Stonecipher Sr. Born October 14, 1889 – April 20, 2009. Chris was a life long community advocate, great father, loving husband and talented writer. Rest in Peace Chris.

     Since I wished to be buried in style, Quentin’s funeral Home has a premium-package for $3,995.00. “This package includes basic services of the funeral director and staff; embalming; dressing, casketing, and/or cosmetology; viewing/visitation for one evening (at the Funeral Home or another location); funeral ceremony and a casket coach.”

     Western University of Health Sciences has a Willed Body Program. The program claims that they accept more than just body donations. They accept body parts and amputees are not exempt from donation. “There are certain medical conditions that would prevent acceptance. They are: HIV, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis, Creutzfelt-Jacobs Disease, jaundice and obesity”. Many injuries to the body such as from car accidents are unsuitable for body donations.

     The Neptune Society has cremation plans. Cremation with travel protection is approximately $1900 and they have a basic cremation for approximately $1500. They have someone available 24 hours a day. They will come to any site to remove the body. The have a refrigeration unit available to hold the remains. They have the ability to generate a certified death certificate. They will return “the remains to the family or scatter them at sea. Either plan chosen has payment plans available. 

       According to the Skagit Valley Herald, there is no cost to place an obituary in their newspaper. The process is as simple as filling out their online form. The form requires that the user register for an account with them. The second step is to fill in the deceased information including their next of kin and information about the deceased life.

For more information on societal issues see http://socyberty.com/education/who-is-involved-in-special-education-planning/

http://healthmad.com/disabilities/who-can-get-special-education-services-under-these-laws/

http://socyberty.com/society/remarriages-and-stepfamilies/

http://socyberty.com/relationships/no-fault-divorce/

http://socyberty.com/crime/possible-risk-factors-for-juvenile-and-adult-crime/

http://healthmad.com/addiction/treatments-for-substance-abuse/

http://healthmad.com/addiction/the-causes-of-teen-substance-abuse/

See my friends at http://christonecipher-friends.blogspot.com

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834)

English poet and philosopher, best known for his poems “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” In 1816, he overheard his name mentioned in a hotel by a man who was reading aloud a newspaper account of a coroner’s inquest. Intrigued, he requested for the paper, and was told that “it was very extraordinary that Coleridge the poet should have hanged himself just after the success of his play (”Remorse”), but he was always a strange mad fellow.” Coleridge quickly responded: “Indeed, sir, it is a most extraordinary thing that he should have hanged himself, be the subject of an inquest, and yet that he should at this moment be speaking to you.” In fact, there was a man who had fallen from a tree in Hyde Park; and his sole identification was his shirt which bore the mark “S. T. Coleridge.” Coleridge believed the shirt was probably stolen from him.

Marcus Garvey (1887 – 1940)

National hero of Jamaica; Black nationalist and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). After having suffered a stroke in January 1940, he read in the Chicago Defender dated June 10th of the same year his own obituary, negatively describing him as “broke, alone and unpopular.” And as a result, he suffered another stroke and died.

Hiroo Onoda (1922 – )

World War II Japanese army intelligence officer stationed in the Philippines. After the war, he survived three decades hiding in Philippine jungles in the sincere belief that the war had not ended. He, along with three fellow soldiers, continued their battle, executing many local Filipinos in the process. Every effort to convince him that the war was over was considered an enemy trap. Officially declared as dead in 1959, he only yielded himself in 1974, when his commanding officer was called out of retirement to personally order him to surrender. He was accorded a hero’s welcome upon his return to Japan and wrote an autobiography “No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War,” describing his years fighting a war that was long over.

Fidel Castro (1926 – )

Revolutionary leader who led Cuba from 1959 until his retirement in 2008. In 2003, it was discovered that his draft obituary could be accessed from the CNN website without a password. Apparently, it had used Ronald Reagan’s as a template, describing him as “lifeguard, athlete, movie star.”

Joe DiMaggio (1914 – 1999)

New York Yankee baseball player and second husband of Marilyn Monroe. On January 1999, NBC prematurely broadcast his death as a text report moving across the bottom of the TV screen, which was seen by DiMaggio himself. The text was pre-written in response to newspaper reports that DiMaggio was near death due to lung cancer, and put on the air when a technician pushed the wrong button. He died on the 8th of March.

Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)

1953 Pulitzer and 1954 Nobel Prize-winning American writer and journalist, whose famous novels include “The Old Man and the Sea” and “A Farewell to Arms.” Newspaper reported that he and his fourth wife Mary had perished after both figured in two successive African plane crashes in 1954. However, Hemingway survived, but suffered serious injuries that affected him for the remainder of his life. It was claimed that he reads a collection of his own obituaries every day with a glass of champagne following the incident.

Friedrich Gulda (1930 – 2000)

Austrian classical and jazz pianist and composer. In 1999, he sent a fax report to the Austrian News Agency of his own death from a stroke at the Zurich airport. Not long after, he revealed he was still very much alive and would be performing a “Resurrection Recital” complete with go-go dancers. He frequently played practical jokes to exasperate the musical authorities, thus earning him the title “terrorist pianist.”

Vince McMahon (1945 – )

American professional wrestling promoter and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) chairman. On June 11, 2007 live edition of RAW, he was “presumed dead” after the limousine he entered exploded, and a tribute was instantaneously made in his honor on the WWE website. However, on June 25, 2007, the scheduled memorial for him was cancelled in the wake of the “actual” double murder and suicide of Chris Benoit; instead, he emerged in an empty stadium revealing that the explosion had only been a stunt. The entire planned storyline was immediately discarded in deference for those who had died.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917 – 2007)

American Pulitzer Prize recipient and historian. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentioned about his death on its November 29 2005 edition. Three days later, it withdrew the reference saying, “We are embarrassed but happy for Mr. Schlesinger.”

Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)

Welsh philosopher, historian and mathematician. In 1920, he contracted pneumonia during his one-year teaching stint in Beijing accompanied by his fourth wife Dora; and soon, erroneous reports of his demise were published by the Japanese media. So when he and his wife visited Japan on their return trip, Dora informed the media that “Mr. Bertrand Russell, having died according to the Japanese press, is unable to give interviews to Japanese journalists.” The press did not take the sarcasm well.

Click on the following for more interesting history articles:

• 10 Bizarre Deaths in History
• 10 (More) Bizarre Deaths in History
• 10 (Ultimate) Bizarre Deaths in History
• Unusual Wills and Testaments
• Premature Obituaries 1
• Famous Teen Deaths
• Birthday Deaths
• Historical People with Amusing Nicknames

1. Pope Benedict XV (1854 – 1922)

   

   Born Giacomo della Chiesa, he was elected pope in 1914. He fell sick in early January 1922 with pneumonia. Owing to speculations of his imminent death, a New York newspaper mistakenly ran on its front-page “The Pope is Dead,” followed by an later edition that headlined “Pope has Remarkable Recovery.” He eventually passed away due to the sickness on January 22, 1922.

2. Nikita Khrushchev (1894 – 1971)

   

   Succeeded Stalin as First Secretary leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1953 but was however forced to resign in 1964 for making serious political mistakes such as triggering the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. In 1964, his death was wrongly announced by a Cologne radio station, which had received a hoax telex report.

3. Alice Cooper (1948 – )

   

   Born Vincent Damon Furnier, an American Rock singer who is often called “Father of Metal” and “Founder of Shock Rock.” Many believed that he had died when Melody Maker magazine published a sarcastic review of his concert in obituary form. He later comforted his fans: “I’m alive and drunk as usual.”

4. James Scott Brady (1940 – )

   

   Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary under the Reagan administration. Some media reports announced that he had passed away when he was shot in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. After being permanently disabled by the incident, he became an ardent supporter of gun control.

5. Alfred Nobel (1833 – 1896)

   

   Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor of the dynamite. In 1888, a French newspaper deliberately published his obituary to condemn his invention. However, this incident prompted him to use his great fortune to establish the Nobel Prize with the intention of improving his posthumous legacy.

6. Paul McCartney (1942 – )

   

   English rock singer-composer-producer, founder of the Beatles and the band Wings. His hits include Beatle’s “Hey Jude” and “Yesterday,” and Wing’s “Live and Let Die” and “Band on the Run.” Though already popular, the Beatles’ popularity intensified in 1966 when an urban legend started to spread through a radio station that one of its member died and was substituted with a look-alike, but the entire thing turned out to be false.

7. Michael Heseltine (1933 – )

   

   British politician and businessman. After suffering a heart attack, news of his death rapidly escalated when then-BBC Radio DJ Chris Morris implied it as a joke, leading to an on-air tribute by fellow MP Jerry Hayes. Morris was subsequently suspended for the prank.

8. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903)

   

   American-born painter and etcher based in Britain, who is best known for his nearly black and white full-length portrait of his mother entitled “Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 1,” better known as “Whistler’s mother.” A Dutch newspaper reported that he had died after a heart attack. He subsequently wrote to the paper concerned, saying that reading his own obituary brought about a “tender glow of health.”

9. Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)

   

   1907 Nobel Prize for Literature winning British writer and poet, whose best known work include the novels “The Jungle Book” and “Kim” and the poem “Gunga Din.” His death was published by mistake in a magazine, to which he humorously wrote: “I’ve just read that I am dead. Don’t forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.”

10. Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

    

    Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American humorist, novelist and lecturer, whose best known works include “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Prince and the Pauper.” In 1897, the erroneous publication of his obituary in a New York Journal prompted his famous comment “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Click on the following for more interesting history articles:

• 10 Bizarre Deaths in History
• 10 (More) Bizarre Deaths in History
• 10 (Ultimate) Bizarre Deaths in History
• Unusual Wills and Testaments
• Premature Obituaries 2
• Famous Teen Deaths
• Birthday Deaths
• Historical People with Amusing Nicknames