On Friday I wrote about how I didn’t like the turn obituary writing had taken and that led to a brief discussion on the topic between editor Hasso Hering and myself.

Hasso found it regrettable that, while we let people effectively say whatever they want in the obits they purchase from us, we don’t really give them any guidelines to help them write a good obit.

“What I do, Hasso,” I told him, “is if someone asks me about how to put together an obit, I just tell the person to give me basic info and I’ll write it for him, gratis.” (Of course, the customer still has to pay the paper for the obit to get printed.)

To give the person an idea of how I think an obit should sound and what kind of information it should contain, I send a copy of the obit I prewrote for myself a year or so ago. I think one of about that length costs around $90, not including a photo, which at this writing goes for $15.

Heretofore I have only extended this service to friends who ask for assistance, but now, in the name of goodwill, I am broadening the offer to all of you out there in Blog Land.

I’m assuming I won’t get swamped with requests and if I do I’ll have to rethink the policy, but in the meantime, if you need help putting together an obituary, you know who to get ahold of.