Book: Orbit – Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives…

Obit: Stories of Ordinary Lives

Discovering Wisdom in Final Farewells

Critical Review

“You probably won’t have heard of any of the people eulogized in Obit, but they will remind you of the variety of humans on earth and the absolute certainty that no matter how powerful a personality, eventually the body goes, and that what remains stays not only in people’s hearts, but in their stories.”
Chicago Sun-Times

Product Description

Like Everything I Really Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten, or Tuesdays with Morrie, Obit is a wise and deeply moving book that illuminates the human condition. For ten years, Jim Sheeler has scoured Colorado looking for subjects whose stories he will tell for the last time.

Most are unknowns, but that doesn’t mean they’re nobodies. Their obituaries are sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, and chock full of life lessons as taught by the people we all pass on the street every day. And thanks to Sheeler’s brilliant and compassionate prose, it’s not too late to meet them.

Key Themes

Everyday Wisdom

Discovering profound life lessons in the stories of ordinary people

Compassionate Storytelling

Celebrating lives that might otherwise go unnoticed

Human Connection

Finding universal truths in individual experiences

About the Author

Jim Sheeler spent a decade writing obituaries for the Boulder Planet and Rocky Mountain News, finding extraordinary stories in the lives of ordinary people. His compassionate approach to obituary writing earned him a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2006 for his story “Final Salute,” which chronicled a Marine major who helped the families of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Sheeler’s work stands as a testament to the power of storytelling and the dignity of every human life, no matter how seemingly unremarkable.

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