Periodically, I go on line and read the obituary listings of the newspaper in Wooster, OH, the town where I grew up.
Saw a headline listing of a man whose name I didn't recognize but he was only a few years older so I decided to read the detailed obituary.
When I opened the obituary, the light went on.
Had never seen his last name spelled out so didn't immediately recognize it; however, when I saw his middle name, "Bingo", I had always known him to use his middle name.
This guy lived a couple of doors away from me when we were kids after WWII.
Hadn't seen or heard from him since graduated from grade school and we went our separate ways.
He had moved to New Jersey almost 40 years ago and will be buried there, but still had family in Ohio, which is why the obituary was listed in Wooster.
Thanks to the internet, was able to say goodbye.
A lot of things had to go right for this to happen.
1) I chose to check the obituary listings. 2) My curiosity caused me to read the total obituary rather than just the headline. 3) The family chose to publish the obituary in the Wooster newspaper. 4) The New Jersey funeral home has a web site that accepts e-mall guest book signings.That's a lot of things that had to go right.
Tis a small world in which we live.
Lew