LaFayette native Dimon Kendrick-Holmes is the new editor of the Opelika-Auburn News.
Life can be a bummer. I don’t have to tell you that, but I will anyway.
Take Friday, for example. I had it all planned out: I was going to do a whole day’s work before lunch and then I was going to get my second COVID-19 shot and because it was the Moderna vaccine I was going to feel terrible starting in the middle of the afternoon but that was OK because I was going to lie on the couch and watch March Madness until midnight.
So, I woke up early and did a whole day’s work before lunch while it thundered and lightninged outside. Then the sun came out, the birds started chirping, and I got a text telling me that my shot was being postponed due to severe weather. I wasn’t going to be feeling terrible, but I could at least still watch March Madness until midnight, right?
Wrong. I turned the TV to CBS and instead of a full-court press I saw “The People’s Court.” I checked the listings again and realized that the Sweet Sixteen games weren’t until Saturday and Sunday, and the Elite Eight games weren’t until Monday and Tuesday. If we’ve learned anything about life during a pandemic, it’s that you can forget about knowing what day it is.
But I learned something else this week. I already knew that death isn’t funny, but I learned that a story about a person who just died could be funny – not how they died, or the fact that they died, but that they lived a life in which funny things happened and people laughed a lot.
On Monday, we published a wonderful obituary about a man named Freddie Wilhite.
Freddie was a police officer, ran a lot of different businesses, and apparently drank a lot of coffee with a lot of people. He loved cars. “If it had a motor,” the obit read, “it was a safe bet that he would find the joy and appeal in it.”
This was my second favorite passage of the obit: “He also had his rebellious phase where he listened to a lot of epically twangy, country music. It was a period decorated with big hats, pointy boots, and other questionable clothing choices.”
This was my favorite part, which appeared right after information about Freddie’s graveside service: “The family asks that you observe Covid safety protocols because no one needs to be back at the cemetery prematurely.”
I called the funeral home to try to find out who wrote the obituary. The funeral home person seemed surprised that I found the obit funny, leading me to think that either they didn’t think this particular obit was funny – or they didn’t think anything anywhere was funny.
Anyway, I did leave my phone number and requested they have whichever family member wrote the obit to call me so I could compliment them and maybe hear another funny story about Freddie.
I didn’t know Freddie, but I’m glad I read his obit and got to know something about him. And now that I think about it, I can’t help but wonder if Freddie wrote it himself.
Dimon Kendrick-Holmes is editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. You can reach him at dkendrick-holmes@oanow.com.
March 28, 2021 at 04:30AM
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DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES: Death’s not funny but obituaries can be – and other interesting things I learned this week - Opelika Auburn News
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Funny
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