I don’t remember who the quote actually comes from, but it goes something like this:  “I check the obituaries in the paper every morning to make sure I’m not in them.” Truth is, when we get older there seems to be a tendency to check the obituaries, at least now and then. I recall my mom doing so. My dad had a habit of checking the San Antonio phone book when we’d make trips there; he wanted to check if some of the people from the “old days” were still there. Mom and dad met, courted, and started their family in San Antonio, before moving to Houston in 1956.

Looking back with an eye on specific people can be a good thing if we look for more than just the facts. Connecting dots is much more interesting.  Take Hank, for example.

My wife and I were watching a show that included an actor with a voice that she said was perfect for radio. That made me think of Hank Glamann who I met while working in the courtesy booth at Handy Andy grocery in the early- to mid- 1970s. He had an amazing voice and loved to use the microphone to alert customers to specials and other things. Come to find out, he was an aspiring radio personality; he had an occasional 2:00 a.m. shift at KLOL rock music radio station in Houston. He, an aspiring radio professional, and I, an aspiring photographer, shared time in the courtesy booth for about a year as we worked toward our planned futures.

I searched the internet after my wife’s comment, looking for some evidence that Hank had gone on to have some sort of career in radio. I included a search for him in obituaries. I found nothing, but I came across his name in another search, though. He died just over five years ago at the age of 64. He has a legacy in the field of copy editing, having spent several stints in the newspaper realm. Ironically, after my grocery store stint, I worked for a weekly newspaper as a stringer writer/photographer. He had been one of the founders of a professional association for copy editors and they established an award in his honor — https://aceseditors.org/awards/glamann-award. Writing has been part of my professional life for almost five decades, and personal life since I was about 13. One never knows in the moments how dots connect in life; sometimes it takes years or decades to reveal the patterns.

An aspiring radio personality and an aspiring photographer ended up in professions that were related to each other. Knowing that puts my memories of the old days in different perspectives; I find that enlightening and oddly comforting. The insights remind me of a truth for all of us — that the person you know today may be in very different roles in the future, and people we knew in the past may not be what we’d expect them to be today. We should not over extrapolate the future trajectory of others’ lives. Enjoy and appreciate people for who they are now and enjoy the view as things change over a lifetime.