Remembering the Dead: What Community Newspaper Memorials Reveal

People will understandably continue to remember significant persons long after their deaths. One possible remembrance practice is the placement of a memorial about the deceased person in a community newspaper. It is not clear what these memorials are intended to do, how they are constructed, who places them in a public sphere for open viewing, and what purpose or purposes they serve. As these memorials could be important for grief management and other personal, family, or social purposes, an examination of memorials to the dead appearing over one year in the Edmonton Journal, the primary newspaper for a Canadian city of one million inhabitants, was conducted. This research project found memorials were uncommon (N = 567) compared to obituaries (N = 4,865), and very uncommon in relation to the number of decedents who could have been memorialized. Memorial authors were most often parents or children, with memorials usually appearing on a second year or later death anniversary. Two content themes were identified: (a) enduring love for the deceased, and (b) a continuing if not permanent remembrance of them. The findings raise many questions, but primarily how people can openly and constructively grieve long after the death of a loved one.