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We all know it will happen one day - and most don't know when or even why. One day our lives on this earth will end. As they say, death and taxes - two things that are inevitable in one's life.

Why am I so focused on death? I hope I am not really focusing on death, but I have learned over many years that we do not like talking about it. At least Australians don't. I think my plan to write the stories of peoples' lives started when I was abut 19 years old, a trainee nurse in a country hospital.

My patients were amazing people and in the twilight of their lives they shared with me the detail of some of their experiences. Most had been born in the 1800's, and their lives had spanned those years and well into the 1900's. I was fascinated with their stories. In retrospect I should have taken up the pen then and there, but I did not. Something I regret.

We have a strong interest in family history in our family - and in life stories, and I have one second cousin (or is it third) who is a historian and has written much of the family stories on my mother's side. She is single, and lived with her father in an old house which itself is somewhat of a museum. Very much kept in the style of it was over 100 years old. But when her father died, she confessed to having never managed to find time to write her father's story.

I have written the stories of my parents - though with some difficulty as they don't wish to sit with me and answer my questions, and are intimidated by the digital recorder between us. But I have much of their lives recorded.

My passion caused me to set up a life story writing consultancy several years ago, but I found writing the long tomes that had been identified in my business plan, were not profitable. And hard to find people with the money to pay the fee. In any case I did not focus on it. I had discovered ESL teaching and the free ticket to adventures travelling into Asia.

I'll still do that, but right now I am "cranking up" my consultancy again, but focusing on Obituaries. Initial reactions when people learn what I am doing are worth capturing on video, but alas I don't have the camera poised. No one wants to talk about death. As if it is something that they hope will never happen. My mention of the subject can be confronting. That is why so few people actually make preparations. The number of people who do not bother to make a will, or document their wishes should their health deteriorate and they become unable to make informed decisions on their own.

Even people who have lost a loved one - and believe me I don't tackle them on the subject of Obituaries - do not deal with their loss well. Sad but true. I'm lucky - I've not yet lost anyone very close to me.

I have, as a nurse, been close to folk in their dying moments. I've been with men and women and talked with them until they took their last breath and faded away. I've always felt it an honour to be with them at that time. I applaud the new style of funeral service, where there is a celebration of life, rather than focusing on the mourning of a death.

Now I want to spend time with them recording their stories - for their families, for history. It is an interesting journey.