Father left this world

Buppies · Aug 22, 2022

Sorry for your loss Sigarms sounds as if he lived a full life. You are blessed to have had so much time with him and the stories about him are wonderful, thanks for sharing. Prayers for your loss

Anything you need let us know only a couple of hours away and we will be in Winston Salem this Saturday for car service

Sigarms · Aug 22, 2022

tradosaurus said:
Sorry to hear about your fathers passing. My father, a WW2 vet, died back in 1998 of lung cancer having smoked most of his life.
If you believe in a God then only He can knows the time and place of one's death.
So someone who murdered themselves (suicide) might have gotten better and lived years more.
Now if someone dies because of something they did (smoking, obesity, etc) then could that be considered a slow form of suicide?

If you believe in the God of Abraham, there is only one Judge. The issue IMO is men believing in that God trying to speak on His behalf as judge.

Bigger question is if someone who is suffering from mental illness kills themselves, what caused the mental illness and are they responsible for their own actions?

Way I see it, we'll all have it figured out when it's our time

Sigarms · Aug 22, 2022

Buppies said:
Sorry for your loss Sigarms sounds as if he lived a full life. You are blessed to have had so much time with him and the stories about him are wonderful, thanks for sharing. Prayers for your loss

Anything you need let us know only a couple of hours away and we will be in Winston Salem this Saturday for car service

Sincere thanks for that offer. Everything has been arranged. He'll be buried up in Pa next month. Hotels, funeral home, burial service, restaurant all taken care of. Kind of proud I did it all without my wife, who was away with her mother. Like my dads life, my wife is the brains of the outfit, but it's nice to know I can still get things done when needed on my own LOL

MossRoad · Aug 22, 2022

Sigarms said:
…

Way I see it, we'll all have it figured out when it's our time

Sigarms · Aug 22, 2022

workinonit said:
Sorry to hear about your father. I dealt with 10+ years of my dad post stroke before he passed away in 2019 after many falls. Mom died 6 months later after many falls as well. It's tough to witness.

Yet another reason why I was blessed IMO. Dad took a couple of falls before, nothing serious. This last one was the ONE though. Thing his, he went quick and didn't suffer, and for that I'm grateful for. Like I said, he had a good life and he didn't spend more than a day and a half in the hospital when he went.

For myself, the only perfect death is in your sleep. Don't know the percentages, but I'd guess their extremely low.

Wakey · Aug 22, 2022

Sorry for your loss Sig.. I lost my grandmother and my father and then my grandfather all spaced about 9 or 10 months apart. They all really suffered. Gandma was 100, was diagnosed with dementia around 98 years of age. PawPaw fought Parkinson's forever, was skinny as a rail when he finally left. My father had several big surgeries that tried to kill him each time and eventually got colon cancer.
I watched them suffer and as an old family friend told me, life is a blessing and sometimes death is as well.

Sigarms · Aug 25, 2022

Learned something new today.

With all the people in this world dying, why there are not pages and pages of obituaries in the paper.

The simple reason? I'm guessing most people can't afford them or don't think they're worth the money.

Did run it up north as my dad did know a lot of people and thought it right to let people know. Down here, I almost fell over dead myself as it was even higher. We're not talking two or three hundred dollars.

Hay Dude · Aug 25, 2022

Sigarms said:
Learned something new today.

With all the people in this world dying, why there are not pages and pages of obituaries in the paper.

The simple reason? I'm guessing most people can't afford them or don't think they're worth the money.

Did run it up north as my dad did know a lot of people and thought it right to let people know. Down here, I almost fell over dead myself as it was even higher. We're not talking two or three hundred dollars.

A friend and customer of mine just lost his son 2 weeks ago. Died doing what he loved-professional drag racer. Chute opened and lost control. I never liked auto or drag racing, but that’s what he loved doing.
I would think that would be the way to go. Better than laying in a bed with people getting all riled up and crying over me.
I hear you on the obituaries. My older sister put my my fathers and mothers obituaries in the local paper and it was ridiculously expensive, just like all other funeral costs.

MossRoad · Aug 25, 2022

Sigarms said:
Learned something new today.

With all the people in this world dying, why there are not pages and pages of obituaries in the paper.

The simple reason? I'm guessing most people can't afford them or don't think they're worth the money.

Did run it up north as my dad did know a lot of people and thought it right to let people know. Down here, I almost fell over dead myself as it was even higher. We're not talking two or three hundred dollars.

Yep. I'll tell you from my experience working at a newspaper for 30 years... you could change the format of the paper, move features, sports, human interest, etc... around. Do anything you wanted with the layout of the paper. But if you messed with stocks or obits, the phones would ring off the hook with complaints.

Eventually, with dropping circulation numbers, the demise of classified advertising due to Craig's List (Classifieds were the bread and butter of newspapers), and the advent of stocks on-line, the only thing left was Obits. So the prices went up. It's sad but true.

Our newspaper prints Death Notices free of charge. The Death Notice says:

Name of Deceased - Sometimes Lists The Age - Sometimes Lists The Date of Death - Sometimes Lists the Funeral Home Handling Arrangements

Then they print the Obituary if paid for. Usually the funeral home handles that.
Since they are so expensive, a lot of people just pay the funeral home to release a small Obit to the newspaper that says something like:

Name of Deceased passed away mm/dd/yy. See X funeral home website for details.

and then they let the funeral home take care of the obit on their website.

Unfortunately, this will do a lot to muck up genealogy searches in the future, as newspapers were pretty organized and did a great job of preserving history. With the facts being spread out amongst so many different places now, it's gonna be harder to locate them, and there's no entity to keep records in one place.

A lot of people don't know that most newspapers send copies to the local libraries for preservation. Most funeral homes do not.

So at best, in the future, one could search a newspaper through a library and find a death notice, with little to no more information preserved.

MossRoad · Aug 25, 2022

Hay Dude said:
A friend and customer of mine just lost his son 2 weeks ago. Died doing what he loved-professional drag racer. Chute opened and lost control. I never liked auto or drag racing, but that’s what he loved doing.
I would think that would be the way to go. Better than laying in a bed with people getting all riled up and crying over me.
I hear you on the obituaries. My older sister put my my fathers and mothers obituaries in the local paper and it was ridiculously expensive, just like all other funeral costs.

I used to drag race motorcycle. I wouldn't want to die that way.

You used to lifeguard as I did. Would you want to drown? Foot around an anchor line in shallow water? Yikes! I wouldn't.

He died doing what he loved, skydiving: plummeting to earth after his parachute didn't open.

Nope. I don't want to see it coming, not even for a few seconds.

I want to go in my sleep, or be hit by lightning, space debris maybe.

Maybe my mind will change as I get older and reflect on my life, but for now, make it quick.

2manyrocks · Aug 25, 2022

The two local families that run competing funeral homes in our rural mid TN community each maintain on line obits. All their data stored on line is at risk of going away. They could get tired of the expense. They could sell out to a chain. I doubt that these obits will be accessible 100 years from now.

I looked at a property to buy a few months ago. The owner died intestate (no will). His three out of state children filed an affidavit of heirship in the real estate records claiming ownership of his house, but his children weren't even mentioned in his obituary.

If something is important to your family history, please document it yourself in a way that doesn't depend on third parties. How you choose to do this depends on what you are comfortable working with.

Even the basic version of Microsoft word I have makes easy to integrate pictures with text that can be printed on a quality color or b/w laser printer for longevity. It isn't that expensive except for taking the time to do it. Pictures stir our memories and show things that would be difficult to describe in words. They give future generations a view of what happened back then. The text explains the significance of the picture.

It doesn't have to be written like a presidential biography. Write what you know like the awesome story about your Dad's ring passing to your son.

My father didn't type. One of the most valuable (to me) pieces of my family history is my father's handwritten memories of his grandparents. They passed before I was born. His description tells what they were like and their importance to him. I am so very grateful that he took time to write his memories down because the memories help me know them as living people rather than just names, faces, places and dates.

Sigarms · Aug 25, 2022

Another thing to think about... Prayer cards...

Exactly how many pictures of Jesus do you need with scripture laminated to be used as a book mark? Hope I'm not going to haydes for that thought...

Funerals, like everything else, are changing over time, particularly when people get "spread out".

buckeyefarmer · Aug 25, 2022

2manyrocks said:
Family histories are imperfect. Document what you know because the next generation won't know anything except what you write down for them. Given enough time, people forget what they've been told. If it's important or interesting, write it down.

My aunt kept one short newspaper clipping about the death of a cousin in WWII that led to me researching more about his life. If it were not for that one newspaper clipping, I wouldn't have had any place to start.

Many family photographs containing significant historical information and clues get thrown out because later generations have no clue about who is in the photograph or their significance to family history. For example, you may easily know who is in a photo from 1960, when the photo was made, where it was made... and it's significance but future generations may not have the first clue unless you fill in the blanks for them.

If they don't understand the importance of something, they tend to throw it away.

I have photos going back to the early 1900s. There came a point when I realized that I may be one of the few people who can still identify the people in these photographs. That led to me organizing the photos, identifying the people and then writing about what I knew so their stories just didn't disappear.

You have an obvious talent for communication and attention to detail. Make a list of information and stories you want to share with future generations. Fill in the blanks for them as best you can.

Some good points.
I have become the family historian. I have old pictures, some from late 1800s that was my great grandmothers. I’m trying to determine who people are in them. I have scanned all the old pictures.
I need to write it down. I have notes in spreadsheets.
I’ve been wanting to make a book.

MossRoad · Aug 25, 2022

Sigarms said:
Another thing to think about... Prayer cards...

Exactly how many pictures of Jesus do you need with scripture laminated to be used as a book mark? Hope I'm not going to haydes for that thought...

Funerals, like everything else, are changing over time, particularly when people get "spread out".

I collect them all!

I had a stack of them in my Suburban, I've been to so many funerals.
Just found about 30 more going through some of my dad's stuff that's been in storage since '95. It's kinda nice and traditional, so we always take one, and, we always have them printed as keepsakes when we're the ones responsible for the deceased person. Just something to remember those that have gone before us.

As for going to hades, from your writings here on TBN, I'm pretty sure you'll probably skip that and just go to purgatory for a short while, get the bottoms of your feet toasted a bit, then move on to heaven, should you chose to be in that line of thinking.

(please put a good word in there for me, just in case I'm wrong)

MossRoad · Aug 25, 2022

buckeyefarmer said:
Some good points.
I have become the family historian. I have old pictures, some from late 1800s that was my great grandmothers. I’m trying to determine who people are in them. I have scanned all the old pictures.
I need to write it down. I have notes in spreadsheets.
I’ve been wanting to make a book.

My father had a bunch of pictures of family and such. I got them when he passed away. While in his later years he took the time to write on the back who's who and where, he sometimes got a few things incorrect.

Favorite example is of my grandfather holding a rather large catfish that he caught. The back of the photo says grandpa with a catfish at Diamond Lake in Michigan..... there's palm tress in the back of the photo!

Grandma and Grandpa had a winter home in Florida.

2manyrocks · Aug 25, 2022

Ordinary light pencil on the back of a photo printed on paper should not bleed through. Too much writing pressure will damage the paper and surface of the photo.

I wouldn't use ink. Have seen it bleed onto other photos.

There is a need to make things simple for later generations. If they can see who the persons are from the back of the photo without having to look other information that might get separated from the photos over time, that's very helpful.

There really isn't much room on the back of most photos to tell a story. Often, there are a series of photos over time that capture the most important parts of family history.

Most photo book printers of whom I am aware seem focused on photo printing and force you into their printing templates. I just wanted a simple way of tying our photos together with what I knew about our family history. So that's why I used MS Word along with a laser printer at home.

One method of dealing with information management pertaining to a very large number of photographs that have been scanned is to use a program like Photo Mechanic Plus. It is specifically made for captioning photos with IPTC data. It is typically used by sports photographers sending their photos out for news media publication. The news media can look at the embedded IPTC data and immediately know who's in the photo, what they were doing, when it was taken, who made the photo, etc.

Once names, dates, places are entered into the IPTC data for each photo, the program is very quick at sorting them. When you are trying to figure out who people are in photos, it's helpful to be able to compare photos over time to try to figure out the missing names. This kind of photo sorting is much faster than trying to sort through many, many paper photos. And it avoids potential damage by repeated handling of old photos.

I'm not advocating using digital media for long term storage of family photos, but I will say this program is excellent as a photo management tool. New: Photo Mechanic Plus - Camera Bits, Inc..

Sigarms · Aug 25, 2022

MossRoad said:
I collect them all!

I use to collect baseball cards to!

As for Heaven and Hades, I'm a pessimist at heart. If I plan it that way and it happens, Its expected on my end. If it works out better than expected, I'm ahead of the game LOL Never been to a funeral yet where the minister has said the departed is going to Hades.

Way I see it, if I want to collect scriptures, I'll get a Bible. Wait, I have one!

Sigarms · Aug 25, 2022

2manyrocks said:
Ordinary light pencil on the back of a photo printed on paper should not bleed through. Too much writing pressure will damage the paper and surface of the photo.

I wouldn't use ink. Have seen it bleed onto other photos.

There is a need to make things simple for later generations. If they can see who the persons are from the back of the photo without having to look other information that might get separated from the photos over time, that's very helpful.

There really isn't much room on the back of most photos to tell a story. Often, there are a series of photos over time that capture the most important parts of family history.

Most photo book printers of whom I am aware seem focused on photo printing and force you into their printing templates. I just wanted a simple way of tying our photos together with what I knew about our family history. So that's why I used MS Word along with a laser printer at home.

One method of dealing with information management pertaining to a very large number of photographs that have been scanned is to use a program like Photo Mechanic Plus. It is specifically made for captioning photos with IPTC data. It is typically used by sports photographers sending their photos out for news media publication. The news media can look at the embedded IPTC data and immediately know who's in the photo, what they were doing, when it was taken, who made the photo, etc.

Once names, dates, places are entered into the IPTC data for each photo, the program is very quick at sorting them. When you are trying to figure out who people are in photos, it's helpful to be able to compare photos over time to try to figure out the missing names. This kind of photo sorting is much faster than trying to sort through many, many paper photos. And it avoids potential damage by repeated handling of old photos.

I'm not advocating using digital media for long term storage of family photos, but I will say this program is excellent as a photo management tool. New: Photo Mechanic Plus - Camera Bits, Inc..

You are definitely ahead of the game.