When a town loses its newspaper, where do people turn for obituaries?

Following the closure of the last local newspaper in Kamloops, B.C., some residents say they are missing out on honouring those who have passed in their community. 

Pat Owen, who has lived in Kamloops for more than 50 years, says checking obituaries in the local newspaper used to be part of her weekly routine. 

"I miss it dreadfully," she said. 

Kamloops This Week published its last edition on Oct. 25, after more than 35 years in the community. 

For Owen, reading obituaries was a way to honour and celebrate the lives of people she knew. 

"I need to know those kinds of things," Owen said. "I'm getting older and I would just like to make sure I can honour friends."

Since the paper shut down, Kamloops resident Tricia Sellmer has checked obituaries online. But she misses being able to read the local obits in print. 

"It gives them a sense of honour, a sense of dignity, a sense that they belong to part of a community," Sellmer said.

"It may just be a few lines, but it may be something long and wonderful."

Rick Jubinville says since the obituaries are no longer available in print, he almost went to the wrong location for a service he recently attended. 

He only found out that he had planned on going to the wrong church after he mentioned it to a friend.

"I didn't know where I was going, I didn't have all the information," said Jubinville. 

Tangible obituaries

B.C.-based news website Castanet continues to post obituaries received from funeral homes. They also accept private obituaries by email for free. 

"A ton of people read it," said Colin Dacre, Castanet's content manager. "It is our third most-read section of the site behind news and classifieds."

But some say there's more to obituaries than simply reading information online. 

Sarah Lawson, general manager of three Kamloops funeral homes run by Dignity Memorial, says not having a physical copy of an obituary has been an adjustment for many.

"There is a tangible thing about opening a newspaper, going to the obituary section, and seeing your person in there, and that's what we've lost," Lawson said.

The company offers free online obituaries, but Lawson says many people like the idea of having a printed obit as a keepsake of their loved one.

"The idea of not having a newspaper to hold and flip through and find our person, it took us a little bit to get our heads around that."

Obits are a part of the grieving process, says author

Kamloops-based writer Tamara Macpherson Vukusic, author of Obittersweet: Life Lessons from Obituaries, says many people are now posting memorials on sites like Facebook in lieu of an obituary. 

She says the downside of this format is that these posts only reach those who are in the person's social network. 

Macpherson Vukusic says the act of sitting down and writing a formal obituary can be an important part of the grieving process.

"We know that we are made up of the fabric of the people that came before us and I think that's part of the reason why storytelling is so important," she said.