Death notices—also known as death announcements or family obituaries—not only provide information about the deceased person and their funeral arrangements but also play a role in the grieving process. They reflect the cultural values and beliefs surrounding death within a society too. However, they have remained largely overlooked. This paper presents a contrastive study of 600 death notices from The Times and La Vanguardia published in 1924 and 2024, examining the language, the message and layout. It aims to investigate the cultural conventions of death notices in English and Spanish, and to explore continuity and change over a century. The results reveal continuity in various textual elements, layout, and metaphorical representations of death, portrayed mainly as a rest and a journey, and an evolution toward greater personalization. Finally, the findings show cultural differences related to death, which might be valuable for translation training.