TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Wednesday announced his morbid fetish of reading the obituary section of the Asbury Park Press each day. He said it was because of his Irish heritage and has been doing it his whole life.
After reading his three daily COVID-19 memorials to those who have died from the disease, Murphy joked about his fascination with the newspaper’s death notices.
“This is one – the joke is among the Irish, that the Irish sports pages are the obituaries,” Murphy said. “I was brought up reading both the actual sports pages and the obituary section. I’ve done that my whole life, and I do every single day, but Dawn jumped out at me. I read this obituary myself in the Asbury Park Press, and it jumped out at me because – for two reasons. One is in the first sentence or two, Judy, it said that she died of COVID, and secondly, look at the picture of this woman. Healthy, in the prime of her life, just extraordinary, and it turns out 57 years old, so anybody out there who thinks this can’t hit you, look again. Look at this woman, and listen to what I said about her extraordinary life and how she was the life of the party literally, and she’s gone. God bless her, and may God bless her and look after her memory and look after her family. We honor and remember every New Jerseyan who’s been lost to COVID, and we stand with their families in mourning and remembrance.”