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$1,074.60

My grandma loved to laugh, and I honestly believe she is laughing right now after the adventure I have had trying to get the word out that she has moved on to a better place.

Gram wrote her obituary 20 years ago and asked that I "update" it once she passed, so yesterday morning I got up and started typing the hardcopy, manual typed pages into Word. Finally I decided to call the Aitkin Independent Age to check on when exactly I would need to submit it to make the deadline.

At 10:37 a.m. I called and found out that it was due by noon.

So I got to typing and updated all of the info and let it go off into cyberspace all 572 words telling of Gram's life. I gave them my credit card and they charged me $60.00 for the obituary in the weekly paper.Next step was pulling everything together for the Star Tribune. I knew I was going to need to scale it back a bit, but wanted to make sure I still captured many of the important events in her life. So, when all was said and done it came to 295 words.

I went online, submitted everything and decided to call to see how I should pay. I spoke with a very lovely woman named Irene and she was so very helpful. She informed me that they put the text into the layout and then call with a quote. I told her that sounded great and thanked her for her help.

Irene called 10 minutes later with the quote.

Irene: Hi Susan, I have your quote.

Susan: Great, I have my credit card here and I'm ready to go.

Irene: So, for two days the total will be $1,074.60.

Silence

Irene: Are you there?

Susan: You've got to be kidding.

Irene: Well it was 50 lines at $9.95 per line times two days is $1,074.60.

Susan: Wow, and I trimmed it back. So, tell me how do those people do it that take up a whole column? It has got to be more than the whole funeral.

Irene: Well, I don't know about that. Most of those people are Star Tribune employee's families.

Susan: I am going to need to think about this. I can't imagine my grandma would be very happy about me spending over $1,000 on her obituary.

Irene: I understand.

Susan: No I don't think you can understand the talking to my grandma will give me when I get to the other side if I spend $1000.00 on her obituary.

Comments

carey said…
susan you better check that. i think newspapers are required to submit a minimal obit for free, and extra lines cost a little more...but not $1,000 more. my grandpa's was $43.
perhaps irene was trying to sell you ad space?
bobbione8y said…
WOW.

that is crazy!

i am glad you got to write more than 295 words here. perhaps you should post her obit here, and just lead people to your blog in the paper :)
Susan said…
I double, triple checked the $ and the amount was correct. The Star Tribune doesn't do anything for free and they charge $9.95 per line. As Gigi would say highway robbery.
Karen said…
She is laughing, Susan, without a doubt!
Chris said…
That just floors me! It's not like they wrote the lines! Why should it cost that much just to print it. Did you end up printing it there?
K~ said…
oh dear. K~

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