So Much Life in Such a Short Time: An Exploration of Children’s Obituaries

Abstract

As childhood death is considered nonnormative and outside of the life course, children may be memorialized differently than adults who have had an opportunity for fuller lives. As obituaries are cultural artifacts used to provide public documentation of personal legacies, this study sought to determine how children obituaries differ from traditional obituaries of those who have lived full lives. I content analyzed 63 children’s obituaries to determine how they differ in intention and use of linguistic devices from what we know about traditional obituaries. Several key themes emerged in the obituary content – passions, religion and faith, children’s role as siblings, their effect on those around them, and messages written directly to the deceased children. These children’s obituaries read as tributes to the children’s lives, rather than as resumes as traditional obituaries often do.