Mt. Lebanon obituary writer pens book on telling your story
In his years writing obituaries about American entrepreneurs and captains of industry for The Wall Street Journal, James Hagerty has occasionally been surprised at how little some families know about their loved ones.
They don无毛视频檛 know what motivated a departed family member to achieve what they did. Going further back in their family history, they might even be completely in the dark about what their grandparents did for a living.
无毛视频淭hey may have some of the highlights of family history, but they don无毛视频檛 know some of the basics,无毛视频� said Hagerty, who is a Mt. Lebanon resident and goes by the first name Bob. 无毛视频淭o me, in an obituary, one of the most interesting things is, why and how did they do something. Why and how is more interesting to me.无毛视频�
Hagerty无毛视频檚 just-published book, 无毛视频淵ours Truly: An Obituary Writer无毛视频檚 Guide to Telling Your Story,无毛视频� offers tips on telling your own life story 无毛视频� and being honest about it 无毛视频� as well as getting the stories of loved ones while they are still here. Chapters cover such areas as interviewing yourself and others, creating an oral history, how and when to use humor and writing tips.
This is Hagerty无毛视频檚 second book, following 2012无毛视频檚, 无毛视频淭he Fateful History of Fannie Mae: New Deal Birth to Mortgage Crisis Fail.无毛视频� A graduate of the University of North Dakota, he has traveled around the world for The Wall Street Journal and the International 无毛视频 Tribune, working in bureaus in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Atlanta and other locations. Hagerty moved to Mt. Lebanon when he joined the newspaper无毛视频檚 Pittsburgh bureau, and became The Wall Street Journal无毛视频檚 full-time obituary writer 无毛视频渟even years and a thousand obituaries ago,无毛视频� according to Hagerty.
无毛视频淚 had noticed living in London that obituaries could be interesting,无毛视频� Hagerty said. 无毛视频淭hey didn无毛视频檛 have to be dry and dreary, full of all the usual cliches.无毛视频�
Not only does Hagerty urge people to write down or record details of their own life story, but also to not dilly-dally and wait until you无毛视频檙e near the end of your life. Though you might think it would be natural to engage in some spin in recounting your life 无毛视频� do we really want to inflict the details of our memorable screw-ups on friends and loved ones? 无毛视频� Hagerty explained, 无毛视频淚 find people are usually pretty frank about having made mistakes.无毛视频�
He continued, 无毛视频淭hey explain what they learned from those mistakes and how they recovered from them. And I include that in the story. Sometimes family members are aghast, but the person wanted to explain why and what he thought about it. I want my kids and grandkids to know, this is how I feel I screwed up and what I learned from it.无毛视频�
In addition to leaving a record of your time on earth for future generations to study, recording your own story can be therapeutic, Hagerty said.
无毛视频淭here has been psychological research that people tend to feel better after writing about their lives,无毛视频� Hagerty said. 无毛视频淚 think it just has to do with resolving things in your mind 无毛视频� what happened and why. Maybe it takes some of the pain or blame or resentment out of it. There无毛视频檚 a psychological benefit.无毛视频�
One of Hagerty无毛视频檚 regrets is that he didn无毛视频檛 sit his own father down to have him tell his story. His father was also a reporter and 无毛视频淚 actually don无毛视频檛 know why my dad decided to become a journalist.无毛视频� He did talk to his mother when she was 79 and 无毛视频渟he was very forthcoming, had a good memory, and really liked talking about the old times. I wrote a long story about her life.无毛视频�
Hagerty will be at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library on Monday, Jan. 30, for two sessions, talking about his book and how people can tell their own stories. It will be in Meeting Room A at 2 and 7 p.m. More information is available at mtlebanonlibrary.org.
无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 not as hard as it looks,无毛视频� Hagerty said.