All these years later, I now see the unfamiliar faces and names in the obituary pages in a different light. For each person therein, there are family members who want the world to know who the deceased was to them and to others who knew and loved them. While a stranger's death is not a direct loss to us personally as casual readers, their obituary represents our only chance at ever having any vague sense whatsoever of who that person was, why they mattered, and to whom.

Very interesting reflection.

$trdo