I don’t get a newspaper, so I just quickly look at the list of online obits, usually a few times a week. Once in a while I’m surprised and saddened to see someone I knew or worked with has died. (I just look at the list of names. I don't read every obituary. Sometimes I don't read any - only read if it's someone I’ve known or someone related to a person I know/knew.) Sometimes I'll send an online condolence, or maybe a card.
The newspapers have only a few obituaries now unlike before when you can depend on the newspaper for news of death - the Manila Bulletin is the most widely circulated then that they hold the most number of obituaries and classified ads. But now it seems that people are into social media for those obituaries. We get a private message or see a post about someone who died. For celebrities, the obituary post would be shared so more likely I will get to read it too.
I have 5 funeral homes on my "favorites" where I check obits daily. Two are from this community. The other cover towns we have previously lived in.
About ten years or so ago, I ran into a former supervisor who told me a former co-worker had passed away a couple months prior. I’d heard she had health problems. But I guess some people prefer to keep their passing private, so there was no obituary or service.
We have a newspaper subscription so my Mother checks the obits daily. It's is sad when you see someone you know in the obits. Makes you feel older than you are to see people you know in the obits! It's just something that comes with life. I recently saw Forrest Gump and the scene when his Mother was dying, "with life there is death". It hit home for my Mom has a pace maker and already had one slight heart attack. I tell my Mother that I read in the magazine that doctors hope that people live till 120 yrs. old. She just saw on the news that Zha Zha made 99 years old and Betty White celebrated her 94th. Mom is 90 this year! God bless my Mom and give her the miracle of longer life!
What's even more sad is to see an obituary for the son or daughter of someone you know. The 18 year old son of an acquaintance died last year (I recognized the last name). The notice didn't say whether it was illness, accident, etc. and I recall wondering.
We have a newspaper subscription and my Mother checks the obits daily. It is sad when you see people in the obits that you knew and it makes me feel older than I am. I recently saw Forrest Gump on television and in the scene of his mother who was dying she said, "with life there is death". It made me realize how short life is.
I look at the obits to see how many people are older than me and as time goes by the number is getting less all the time. On average there is younger people dying than my age maybe I missed my calling and will live forever or at least 120.
I read obits to see if anyone I used to know or work with has died. I also like to read the long rambling obituaries when I buy a newspaper (I used to read one daily but not anymore) that some people publish after a loved one has died. I like hearing about people's lives even if I didn't know them.
I used to enjoy reading the obits of people I didn't know, also, @Linda Binning. I think it honors their lives. There's a charge for obituaries, so perhaps that's why some don't publish them, or it could be out of a desire for privacy. We used to get the newspaper daily growing up, and we'd always read them and comment amongst ourselves if we knew the last name, and read them to see if it was someone we knew. I used to get the weekend paper, but they ended up piling up and I decided to cancel it to save a little money. I used to check my hometown obits, but so many have moved away that I don't bother anymore.
That is true Arlene. Our family never publishes an obituary and we have no service. Only a privet memorial for close family and friends. That we have at someone's home.
Now that I can find almost anything online, I searched for an old boyfriend, just googled his name. An obituary popped up. I was so sad to learn he died at only 55 years old. I had known him when were in our forties. His sister had written the obit and it was a good read, just a sad ending. He was the highschool Valedictorian in Lompoch CA when he was a kid, went on to work for Sunset Magazine, and became very well off. He was married for a time before we met, and had one son I had met. What happened in his life to cause him to lose everything, I don't know. I know that he drank too much, and I remember he had some cancerous spots on his skin he had to have removed. The obit didn't say how he died. Maybe some don't, I don't know because I don't read them to answer the OPs question. For some reason though, it was a bitter-sweet thing to read my friends. I don't regret knowing about him, but like I say, bitter-sweet. PS the pic in the obit was also one he had given me a copy of, he was handsome, looked like Jan Michael Vincent used to look. PSS forgot to mention that when I met him, he was holding down a job as a warehouse worker, and was pretty unhappy. He lived in a tiny apartment, so that's why I said that he lost a lot somehow, his wife, but he did have his son on weekends etc.
My husband was cremated in Fresno and there wasn't a service, but a couple months later we did have a memorial for him in his old Masonic lodge in Illinois.