Obit Backtrack

when my wife and i first got married, 6-ish years ago, she did something that sorta bugged me. when we got the sunday newspaper, or any paper for that matter, she would read the comics.....and the obituaries. i thought that was kinda weird, and i asked her about it. she said that all nurses read the obituaries. i though okay, whatever. this was well before i had any plans or aspirations of becoming a nurse myself.

then we decided that i should go to nursing school as well. i got a job at my wife's same hospital working as a nurse's aide. and guess what? all the nurses there would read the obituaries.

i would shake my head in disgust. for some reason, that just seemed wrong to me. something about that sort of morbid curiosity that rubbed me the wrong way. i could not the justify the interest in the dead.

now i understand. i've been a nurse now for a little over a year, and guess what? now i too read the obituaries. i had my first patient appear in one, and our hospital got a brief mention in the thanks section of my (former) patient's tribute.

it's so weird, i never thought i'd be an obit reader, and now here i am.