I miss the days of when newspapers were a big deal. Everyday (or every week) the paper would arrive in the mail and it was exciting to open it up and see what was inside for news, commentary, local content, and more. When I was in broadcasting school in Saskatoon we had to have a subscription to the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix so that we were always in the know with what was going. The times have certainly changed thanks to social media and the large newspapers out there have been drastically reduced on all levels.

For years, the first thing my mom and grandparents did when they got the paper was flip to the obituaries. To me it seemed morbid, but I guess it was a way to see if any friends or acquaintances had passed on. Faye Finaro of Nottingham, United Kingdom woke up one morning, opened the online newspaper site she normally visits, and found her own name in the obits. To say she was surprised was an understatement. The first thing she did was phone her friend to make sure she was, in fact, alive and not dead.

As one would expect, there was a mix-up with the newspaper. Turns out a congratulatory message somehow got mixed in with an obit and it sounded as if Finaro was dead. She instantly recognized that it was her and not someone with the same name, however it she was concerned it would alarm relatives and friends if they happened to see it. The paper has since apologized.

I guess it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to get a plate of funeral sandwiches delivered to the door, especially egg salad sandwiches!

(photo by: Lisa Fotios)