Opinion: Without eulogies, obituaries became 'less of a list and more of a narrative’

COVID brought poignancy to the pages in other ways. I didn’t recognize it at first. The added pages were not just because more people were dying. Many obituaries were considerably longer than usual.

Kathleen Jane Munday, 71, perished at the thought of another Brady championship

Old Lyme - Kathleen Jane "Kathy" Munday passed into the hands of Our Lord Super Bowl Sunday Feb. 7, 2021, the thought of Tom Brady winning another championship being the last straw. Kathy was born May 31, 1949, in Woonsocket, R.I., the third child and only girl of nine.

Maybelle and Richard Johnson, both born in Westbrook, Maine, felled by COVID 93 years later

Maybelle L. Johnson (nee Blake) passed away Jan. 13, 2021, in New London. She was born Dec. 4, 1927, in Westbrook, Maine to Herbert and Almira (Alice) Blake. They moved to Naples, Maine, when Maybelle was just three months old. She grew up just down the hill from the Manor House in Naples on a piece of land between the main road (Rt 302) and Long Lake. Richard A. "Dick" Johnson passed away Jan. 13, 2021, in New London. He was born May 1, 1927, in Westbrook, Maine, to Everett and Frances Johnson. They moved to South Bridgton, Maine when little Richard was three months old. He grew up in the house by the sawmill.

Margaret DeAdder, 79, loved tea and toast

She excelled at giving the finger, taking no s*** and laughing at jokes, preferably in the shade of blue. She did not excel at suffering fools, hiding her disdain, and putting her car in reverse. (H/T Lisa Scott)

Jon Steib, 73, 'a real man and one of a kind'

He was better than you at pool, poker, and darts, and anything you could break, he could fix. He was rough around the edges and as handsome as the devil.

Tom Blackburn, the man who put the liberal in "the liberal news media"

Saint Peter no doubt awoke as Tom knocked on the pearly gates, his baritone voice barking out something maybe resembling Gloria in excelsis Deo (if we're being generous). Perhaps you dreamed you were hearing the angels singing a bit off key in the wee hours of the morning on January 2, 2021? Now you know the cause of the cacophony. (H/T Vincent Lentini)

Christine Tampellini, 40, "avoided COVID and somehow managed to get “Carcinomas of unknown origin” instead."

NAUGATUCK — Christine (Chris) “Peaches” Tampellini, 40, of Naugatuck, took her last great adventure on Dec. 4, 2020, after successfully beating the odds of taking a selfie with a buffalo from the sunroof of an SUV in South Dakota, as well as surviving an assault by a chicken being pursued by a love-struck rooster in Hawaii.