Why You Should Write Your Own Obituary Each Year

When she was a girl, Kelly McMasters' mother began volunteering at a hospice, and her mother was tasked with writing her own obituary as a training exercise. McMasters tried it herself at age 12, and she's been writing her own obit pretty much every year since for the better part of four decades. In a New York Times essay, the author recommends the practice. "The result of this ritual obituary writing is not as maudlin as it might seem," she writes. "In about a page or so, I usually end up with a gentle accounting of the year, held against all the past ones. I found many of the accomplishments that felt precious one year were hardly worth a mention the next."

Some years have proven too difficult: She skipped 2002 because she was in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The obituary also went on hiatus during the pandemic, when her fears as a single parent of two young children were all too real. But now she's back to the practice, one that she says "can offer clarity about your life and, mercifully, if you find something lacking, you still have time to revise." This lifelong habit has "taught me the practice and value of holding death close, so I could remember to live." (Read the full essay.)