by Neena Strichart
Publisher
Like most of you, I have had to deal with the death of a loved one on many occasions. I have lost my father, uncles, grandparents, my first love, my best friend, ex-husband, close friends, pets and many others who were precious to my heart. It is never easy, and though they say time heals all wounds–it ain’t necessarily so.
Through the years we’ve published obituary notices for our readers. And although some publications charge for those services I just haven’t been able to bring myself to charge money to announce a family’s sadness. In fact, the thought of the whole matter has made me uncomfortable–up until now.
A friend recently called and asked me to run an obituary for him. When he asked me the price–I told him that I could not, in good conscience, ask him for money. He sweetly yet firmly explained to me that “business is business” and that maybe folks didn’t contact us often to run obituaries because they felt that using our no-price policy would be taking advantage of us. After all, he explained, the other newspapers charge a “bundle.” Hmmmmm…
So, what now? Well, I spoke to our staff and we have decided to come up with a special low-cost pricing for those who want to publish obituaries. We don’t yet have the details worked out, but we will make it our top priority and make the announcement in an upcoming issue.
On a similar topic, some of you may have seen the elaborate obituary that ran in our March 20 issue about the passing of Robert Magid. Memoirist Rachael Rifkin created that lovely tribute. She compassionately and painstakingly went about contacting those in Robert’s life who could best tell his story. As a memoirist, she puts a special loving touch in all she writes about, and I am proud to announce that Rachael will be writing all editorial obituaries of local dignitaries for us. We are honored to have her writing for us.
Besides obituaries, our dear Rachael is going to be penning some special features on local personalities who we believe need to be recognized. We are going to call her articles Reminiscing with Rachael. If you have someone you think we should feature, please let us know. Maybe it’s a special teacher or community volunteer, your boss, clergy person, nice neighbor or even a kind couple who goes beyond the call of duty with neighborhood watch. Needless to say, we won’t be able to write about all deserving personalities, but we will certainly do our best to bring you the cream of the crop.
Send your suggestions to: Signal Tribune, 2669 Myrtle Avenue #111, Signal Hill, CA 90755 or email to: newspaper@signaltribune.com.
