 |
Web memorials let family and friends visit departed loved ones online |  |
Web memorials let family and friends visit departed loved ones online
 |
Thursday, April 20, 2000
Web memorials let family and friends visit departed loved ones online
By ANDREW FLYNN -- The Canadian Press
Rod Moffitt, shown in this recent photo, thought it the most natural thing in the world to create a site dedicated to his brother Andy in 1998. Moffitt began Memoriam.org, a free online memorial site after Andy, a gifted University of Ottawa student, was stabbed to death while trying to break up a fight at a bar. (CP PHOTO/Files-Ottawa Citizen-Chris Mikula)
|
TORONTO (CP) -- A gravestone in the physical world can say very little of a life, limited as it is to a small patch of granite and the stonecutter's art.
The digital world has no such restriction, which is why people who have lost a friend or relative are increasingly turning to online memorials to express their loss and love.
Online memorials can preserve the memory of someone who has died in words, pictures and even video. A simple Web site has the potential to say much more than a brief newspaper obituary -- and it can remain available a lot longer.
Rod Moffitt thought it the most natural thing in the world to create a site dedicated to his brother Andy in 1998. Moffitt began Memoriam.org, a free online memorial site after Andy, a gifted University of Ottawa student, was stabbed to death while trying to break up a fight at a bar.
"For my family especially, it's been really great," says Moffitt, 29, a hardware designer at Nortel Networks in Ottawa.
"I just thought a really good way to let people know about Andy was to use one of the things he liked a lot and that was computers and technology and the Internet."
"For my parents, when they first log on to the Web, to see Andy's page has been a real help for them dealing with his death."
Dedicated at first to Andy's memory, Moffitt was soon persuaded to let others post memorials on the site. In pictures and words, about 14 people have so far taken advantage of the space Moffitt provides to eulogize their friends.
"I figured other people out there would like to do something like this as well," says Moffitt.
"I noticed that other companies out there were charging for it so I figured since I'm putting this in for heart and soul for my family I might as well do the same for other people as well. This way, instead of having to go visit someone's grave site, you can catch them on the Net."
|
ONLINE MEMORIAL SITES
|
|---|
www.cemetery.org: The World Wide Cemetery. Photographs, moving images and sounds can be included. Hypertext links can connect family members to create a genealogy. One-time donation of $14 for text entries and $21 for pictures or video.
www.legacy.com: A commercial online memorial service.
www.memoriam.org: Maintained by Ottawa's Rod Moffitt. No charge for listings.
www.generations.on.ca/memorial.htm: Canadian online memorial service. One-time fee of $26.75, with a picture $37.45. With links to funeral homes and florists.
www.goldenmemorials.com: Online memorial franchise with offices in Canada.
|
Moffitt is strictly a volunteer who donates his own time and Web space to maintaining the site and helping people set up their page, and he admits his time is limited.
But there are other sites, many of them commercial, that offer services to people who want to remember those who have died.
As the increasingly computer-savvy baby boom generation ages, many are taking advantage of the Internet's capacity to enrich their lives, says Bill Paige, communications director for the commercial online memorial service Legacy.com.
"We just think that part of that is making the death celebration or the end of life a personal thing too," says Paige, whose American-based company has just begun offering its services in Canada.
"What we're trying to do is focus on life stories," he says.
"When you get a death notice in the newspaper, which is what 90 per cent of people get, it's one inch square and it's in and gone the next day. If you're one of the two or three lucky people to be featured in a full length obituary with a picture, it's still gone in one day."
Permanence is a major draw for Legacy.com's customers, says Paige. So part of the fee (which begins at $195) to post memorials goes into a technology fund to keep the data available no matter how the Internet changes over the years. That way a memorial can become an easily accessible window into family history.
"Grandchildren that are two or three and are not old enough to really comprehend what's going on will be in school 10 years later and using the Internet more than as a matter of course," says Paige.
"It'll be a great resource for them: these were my grandparents, this is what they did and who they were."
Moffitt, too, has resolved to ensure that the memorials on his site remain available over time. He's even planning to hand the data concerning Andy down as an heirloom, a family treasure.
"It's a wonderful way for people to express themselves that they wouldn't have had before," he says.
"I have a feeling that this will outlast me, outlast my family. I hope it does."
|
|
|
|
|
