Last week I was asked to write an
obituary for a man who passed away that ran a neighborhood intimates shop. It
turned out that we had graduated from the same high school, and his grandson
was in my year. I was happy to take on this task, especially because I grew up
shopping at his store, but I had never written an obituary before. While I had
conducted interviews for news articles, I didn’t know if I was supposed to go
about my interview with his son the same way I would with a less emotional
piece. I tried to google “obituary questions” but I didn’t really get any
helpful results. I decided to just go into the interview with some questions
prepared (some of them pretty personal) and used my best judgment as to if I felt
it would be inappropriate for me to ask them. In the end, I was able to ask all
the questions on my list and really enjoyed my time talking to the owner’s son,
who has now taken over the business.
Wow, that is definitely an obstacle to overcome. It would seem hard to figure out appropriate times to ask such personal questions without bringing sad memories to the son. Sounds like you handled it well and your internship seems very interesting. Hope you continue to overcome such obstacles!
ReplyDeleteIt's so crazy that they put you in charge of such an emotional piece. It seems like you were very careful about asking the right questions though and that is exactly how I would have handled the situation. By the way you described your time speaking to the owner's son, it seems as if you were perfectly respectful and that was all he could ask for.
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