‘Lives’ of the North Shore
Jan 28th, 2008 by Dave Olson
It is common practice for newspapers to write a “feature” obituary on the news pages — even on Page 1 — when a prominent citizen passes away, or when one of our neighbors dies in tragic circumstances.
In the past year, The Salem News has written stories on people ranging from former Beverly alderman Ed Doherty to Swampscott’s Jennifer Harris, the young Marine helicopter pilot shot down in Iraq.
Sometimes stories like these help bring communities together to mourn; at other times they remind us of the sacrifice and hard work of prominent civic leaders.
For too long, however, we’ve paid scant notice in our news pages to the passing of so-called “regular” people. (Note: This does not include our obituary pages, which are already among the most widely read in the paper. There are improvements coming here, too, which I’ll talk about in a week or so.)
The truth is there are no regular people. When we fail to realize that, to put into context what a passing means to a particular community, we’re all a little less connected.
That’s why we’re introducing a new feature called “Lives.” Every Monday, we’ll be telling the stories of North Shore people who have died recently.
Our first piece told the story of Nina Vickers of Salem.
There are few rules for “Lives.” Our main goal is to remind our readers — and ourselves — what makes the North Shore a special place to live.
There is a story in every life.
Sometimes, we just need to slow down to notice.