4 Proven Reasons Why An Online Memorial Absolutely Helps
Jane feels miserable.
She is stressed and unsure of what to do next.
Unexpected - her father died. It wasn't the virus. He got ill - now he has gone.
Sad and heartsick Jane is struggling to celebrate his life the way he deserves. She is anxious. Jane needs to make sure people remember the genuine and unique man her dad was.
Jane wants to do the remarkable for him as he always did the exceptional for her.
Many funeral restrictions are out of her control, compounding the sadness. Social distancing limits the mourners to a handful at his funeral. Jane is 'live streaming' the funeral service. In despair, even that feels like a substitute. She knows her dad absolutely deserves more.
Isn't there something else she could do?
Jane is considering creating an online memorial. A few lines and a photo are all they seem to offer. And the last thing she feels like doing is writing about her dad. The words won't come. Only weepy tears are on the blank page in front of her.
Looking at old photographs only makes it worse.
Jane absolutely needs an authentic online memorial to share with those who can't be at the funeral. Despair is setting in as the day approaches. She doesn't know where to start.
What should Jane do?
At the most challenging time in family life, writing words for a memorial service are difficult if not impossible for most people.
That is why we created an online memorial service that perfectly captures the true essence of your loved one.
Bringing together their life story in words creates an online memorial service to share with family and friends that genuinely celebrates their life.
Are You Saying Goodbye From A Distance?
Across the world, families are facing saying goodbye at a distance to someone they love who has died.
Many families can't say goodbye at all. Restrictions around groups gathering have taken away the comfort and support families feel at a funeral service.
We don't go to many funerals in our life, so it is usually only those who are closest to us. The traditional rituals of our culture or religion used to provide comfort, help and support in those times.
From personal experience, though, there is little that seems to help on those days. The physical presence of people around us we love often does. In many ways, those comforting rituals are no longer possible.
Funerals are not taking place as they have always done. They are limiting the amount of time for funeral services so that limits what can be said. More families are using the option of "live streaming" the funeral service as it provides an opportunity of sharing the final goodbye with others who can't be there.
But still, it feels something is missing.
Is this the only way of remembering them or saying farewell? Watching the scene unfold in an empty crematorium or funeral home on a computer?
It seems and feels to lack a depth of meaning for many families.
Can Online Memorials Be A Genuine Help For Grief?
Live streaming a funeral service can feel like an option, but I don't think it is the only way to remember a life when traditional funerals can't. Words, beautiful words in an online memorial service can help much more than only watching a video.
Why Are Beautiful Words More Powerful Than Video Alone For An Online Memorial Service?
Words are much more than a few letters collected together on a page. Beautiful words are powerful things. I can write beautiful words that describe a person you know and love without meeting them. We both see them.
I never opened my mouth, and you never opened yours. We may not be in the same room together, and we may not even be in the same year together, except we are together. We can have a meeting of the minds. Words do that in a way, watching a video doesn't.
Why Is The Book Always Much Better Than The Film?
"The book was much better than the film." Have you ever said that?
My wife spotted a book in a charity shop that she thought I would like. It was 50p. You could buy three books for £1 from the same box. She picked another two - bargain! One of the bonus books was The Leisure Seeker, by Michael Zadoorian.
It's a poignant tale.
Ella is a cancer suffering wife. Alzheimer's is taking the husband, John, she married years ago - day by day. They make one last trip in their Motorhome - The Leisure Seeker - along as much of Route 66 as they can.
It is a character-driven novel told through Ella's eyes and mind. Ella is a rich character portrayed in words. Her irritable moods, her internal ramblings, her actions observed. I needed to go back a few times and re-read sections.
As I did, she came to life in my mind. Starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, I was looking forward to seeing the story told on film.
It didn't work.
The book was much better than the film, the written words, better than the observed scene.
I recently wrote an online memorial service for the best friend of Chris Johnson. With family spread around the country and not able to travel, Chris explains how a written online memorial service helped the family.
“I am ever happier with the final results that Peter delivered through his online memorial service. Peter put together the written and spoken package service for my best friend, one of the people that I care most about in this world.
Peter … really did a great deal of work into putting together something that really displayed the wonderful man that meant so much to me and so many others… Obviously losing someone you care about is terrible but he made it slightly less painful as we worked together… Relatives and many life long friends reached out and said how wonderful they thought the memorial was, how well it was written and put together.”
Based on the authentic testimony of a family just like yours who organised an online memorial service - here are 4 Proven Reasons Why An Online Memorial Service Could Absolutely Help Your Family.
4 Proven Reasons Why An Online Memorial Service Could Help Your Family
An online memorial service gives more time to reflect on the life of the person who died.
It makes no difference when you read the online memorial service; it's always there ready when you are.
You can print out the online memorial service as a keepsake.
It is easier to share an online memorial service with people who may not be comfortable with video technology.
Why Do Most Online Memorial Websites Only Have A Short Obituary and A Few Photographs?
Writing a eulogy as a life-centred story is not the average kind of online memorial you read. More often they sound like a series of biographical facts — like a Wikipedia entry.
Why is that?
It takes so much time to write the kind of memorial that perfectly captures the true essence of your loved one. Someone outside the family can often do that when you don't feel like writing about them.
Most people don't know the first place to start writing about their loved ones. That's understandable. When you have lost someone, the last thing you feel like to doing is thinking about what to write. That's why having someone else to write those words can help you.
When you have these words written by someone else, you can read and re-read them.
So having a written online memorial service absolutely helps.
It allows you to stop, pause, at one clause in a sentence.
You can leave it when tears come.
You can revisit it again and again.
It helps at a deeper level to begin the journey of loss.
That is why an Online Memorial Service of beautiful words could absolutely help you and your family.
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