Obituary Writing Service
First, let me say that I am sorry that whatever happened to bring you here, happened. In my experience with grief, I know that though it gets easier, nothing will ever be the same. In the evocative phrasing of Gordon Lightfoot, “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” Grief is a wave.
Sorrow, unpredictable and disruptive and relentless in its assault, is still a savage beast. Thanks be to God, and blest be the ties that bind us. Fritha S. Dinwiddie, February 8, 2022
Because you are here, you are looking for a way to memorialize your loved one and to create a piece that you can share and revisit, a piece that will express who that person was and what was most remarkable about them. Memories are important. As is often said, “We do not die until someone speaks our name for the last time.”
As a health care professional, I have worked longer than 30 years in oncology, critical care, hospice, home health, and long term/nursing home care. I know grief personally and have, more often, been a witness to the unfathomable sorrow of others.
I understand and want to help. Some excerpts of my writings are below, disguised to protect privacy. Here is how we will work together:
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Contact me at 678-485-3308 or GBizLLCInfo@gmail.com. I will reply to discuss my availability. Please expect the obit to take about 7 days to complete.
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I will send a set of questions to the person you designate and will contact them to set up a phone interview. I can share the project with as many as two people.
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We will use Microsoft shared documents to collaborate with construction of the document.
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Pricing: $40/100 words; the most descriptive obituaries are about 1000 words, so anticipate about $400. Gibraltar Biz takes payment through Venmo or PayPal. An initial payment of $100 is required, refundable for 36 hours after deposit if no services have been yet provided.
This is hard, and I want to help you organize your thoughts. In addition to the basics, these are some of the special memories that I will ask you to share:
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Milestones in his/her life, passions, hobbies
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Last book read
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Life experiences of great joy that he/she shared often, and that were unique
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What friends/family will remember best
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Personality traits that make him/her remarkable
REV. JAMES LAMAR SKINNER (Dad)
Rev. Skinner was a warm, funny, My-Glass-Is-Overflowing kind of person, ever the optimist. In true character during a recent hospital stay, as frailty crept in uninvited, he was having difficulty keeping his Jell-O on the spoon; his daughter offered to help, and without missing a beat he said “No, it lasts longer this way.” We laughed, and finally he gave up and drank it straight from the bowl.
GABRIEL
Born April 10, 1958, in Seattle, Gabriel spent most of his early childhood in Mexico and Brazil where his father was stationed with the USDA. Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, he completed high school in Salinas, CA, and spent a gap year helping immigrant workers navigate the process of finding housing and managing finances. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies and languages from the University of Oklahoma, and a Master of Agriculture from the Ferguson College of Agriculture at Oklahoma State. He returned to Latin America where he spent his career with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
After retirement in 2010, he qualified as a paralegal and volunteered for an immigrant assistance organization in California’s Central Valley. Professionally, Gabe is remembered for his enduring commitment to enabling U.S. AID teams to create sustainable practices in the farming sector, applying his life experience and expertise to help them envision models of crop and livestock management techniques for their own cultural and labor environments.
KATHERINE
She was loved and admired by all our mutual friends/acquaintances, and by many more people who are strangers to me but known to her. And could she laugh! As I’ve read comments about her passing, I’ve discovered that I wasn’t the only one enchanted by her laughter, so infectious that even if you didn’t know what you were laughing at, you laughed anyway, tears pouring down your face. If you’ve ever felt the earth move under your feet (nod to Carole King), and you don’t live in an earthquake zone, it was probably Katie laughing.
