Learning more about my neighbor after she’s gone

Virtually every week, there is at least one obituary, usually more, published in the Herald Times.
Historically, that’s something newspapers have done — they document the life, as well as the death, of a person. In between, the newspaper records other milestone moments in a person’s life — graduation, marriage, birth of a child, professional accomplishments, etc.
Some weeks, the obituaries we publish in the paper are of people I didn’t know, even by name.…