"And ..... is survived by...."

I guess I never quite understood the essential core of an obitutary. Obituaries to me were an ode to the dead that got published. Bt instead, according to many in the book, obituaries are a celebration of life. The intricacies involved in writing an obituary were qute intriguing yet seemed fairly basic. For instance, when the book asks us to cross check everything we write, and to make sure we do not retrieve information of a person with the same name while accessing the newspaper library. Can you even imagine that? The thought of such a situation in itself is quite appaling. An obituary demands more of a feature writing style because a simple use of the five W's results in a boring introduction to the story of someone's life. I was not really aware of a mortuary form, and it is so easy to just utilize this information to create the body of the story. In doing so however, you disregard the information that lies within the lines of the form. I really like the example of how a reporters urge to probe allowed him to inform the audience of an extraordinary life of a 12 year old.
The chapter in the book essentially provided us with ways to create an obituary while keeping in mind the newspaper's policy. But for me the chapter provided a boatload of information by inclding the passage on Tracy Berton. Berton said that "obituaries are the stories that are most likely to be passed along for generations- yellowed and encased in plastic- "
An obituary is an opportunity to truly create a longlasting impression.