Tom McCarthy's poignant and thought-provoking reflections on obituaries(10/14) made me smile a couple of times. Harvard's obits triplet - (cl)cum laude, (mcl)magna cum laude, and (scl)summa cum laude - brought to mind Dartmouth's delightful fourth graduates category: (cpd)cum pelli dentium, by the skin of their teeth. I recalled with a smile also another San Francisco Chronicle Sunday column on obituaries by the late Herb Caen. He had written that a proper lady has her name in the paper three times during her life, when she is born, when she marries, and when she dies.
That triggered my quick note which he promptly shared with his readers: "You reminded me, Herb, of my Italian friends who go to church three times during their life, when they're hatched, when they're matched, and when they're dispatched; each time they get sprinkled, with water, with rice and with dirt; and two times out of three they're carried in." And that, pace Tom McCarthy, is also part of our "unvarnished craft of living."
By Fr. Larry N. Lorenzoni, SDB on October 17, 2002 at 11:33 PM
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