Honor Your Dearly Departed with a Tasteful Memorial Website

Memorial Website

The death of a loved one brings with it the responsibility of honoring your beloved and allowing others to do the same. While the grief and shock of losing a loved one have yet to subside, the “business of death” must be attended to; funeral arrangements must be made, an obituary written, and paperwork filed. The days immediately following a death are a blur with little room to truly honor the river of memories that are flowing just below the surface. However, creating a virtual memorial can soothe your soul and allow you – and others – to pay tribute to your cherished family member or friend.

What is a Memorial Web Site?

A virtual memorial is an online collection of words, photos, and memories honoring a loved one who has passed away. Because virtual memorials are posted online, they are lasting tributes with an added element of interactivity. Once the memorial Web site has been created, other friends and family members of the deceased can view the memorial, add their own memories or words of condolence, and start the healing process. These Web sites are typically hosted by a company specializing in online memorials with templates, themes, and modules designed to get you started with as little fuss possible.

Why Make a Memorial Web Site?

There are many ways to compile a multimedia memorial, including creating videos and slideshows. You may be creating a photo montage depicting your loved one’s life as part of the official memorial service. Photo montages are wonderful additions to a live memorial service, but typically, only those who attend will see the presentation. By moving the tribute online, not only can you show your photo montage during the funeral or memorial service, you can also post your photos and other memories on the memorial Web site.

The Internet’s reach is vast. Imagine creating a virtual tribute for your father and hearing stories of his heroism from an old war buddy or hearing a touching story from a classmate or neighbor. This shared connection brings people from all over the world together to pay homage to your loved one. In fact, many mourners won’t be able to make it to the funeral, despite their desire to attend. A virtual memorial allows them to participate and pay their respects from afar.

In addition, creating a memorial Web site allows you to say goodbye while honoring your loved one. You’ll have the opportunity to spend time in spirit, reflecting on the river of memories flowing through your heart. Writing a biography, obituary, or even a poem that sums up a lifetime is a productive way to grieve.

Sharing with Family and Friends

While creating a virtual memorial helps you through this difficult time, doing so also helps other mourners. Your loved one touched many peoples’ lives. While you or another family member may have notified others of the death, creating and sharing an online memorial allows everyone to come together and reminisce. Include a link to the virtual memorial in the obituary or follow up with close family members and friends once the site is online. These individuals will appreciate the thought and effort put forth and will also benefit from viewing the tribute.

If you set up the virtual memorial with a journal feature, others can post their own memories, thoughts, poetry, and condolences. Together, through shared feelings and memories, you can honor the life of your loved one and slowly heal.  

Features of a Memorial Website

Unless you’re in the funeral business, you probably don’t make memorial websites every day. In fact, this may very well be the first memorial Web site you’ve ever made. What exactly should you include? At its most basic, a memorial Web site consists of a photo of the deceased, birth and death dates, and a brief biography. Other features often include: photo galleries, an online obituary, timelines, a list of favorites, a donation module, and a journal or guestbook feature.

For example, while your words are meaningful, photos say it all. Make sure to include a collection of photos representing the various highlights of your loved one’s journey through life.  Photos provide a glimpse into the past, often revealing something you didn’t otherwise know about the deceased.

An online obituary is similar to that of a printed one. This is where you’ll tell the story of your loved one’s life. Newspaper obituaries are often limited due to space requirements whereas online obituaries can be as long as you need it to be. Initially, you may want to use the same obituary in print and then come back later to expand it. If writing is not your forte, ask a friend for help. Poor grammar, punctuation errors, and spelling mistakes will reflect badly on your loved one, so take the time to proofread for errors.

When someone dies, many mourners want to do something in that person’s honor. Flowers are sent and donations are made to charity in the name of the deceased. If your loved one had a favorite charity or died of a terrible disease, a page detailing suggested charities is a tasteful way to direct donations to a charity that your loved one would have approved of.

Adding a journal or guestbook feature to the virtual memorial provides other mourners a way to express themselves while also bringing you comfort as you later read their words. This feature can provide you with stories you’ve never heard before or reinforce what you already know – that your loved one will be greatly missed.

From a technical standpoint, memorial Web sites are a series of interlinked Web pages complete with navigation buttons and graphical elements such as a header, footer, links, and theme. In order to create an online memorial, you must sign up for an account with an online memorial webhost such as Riverofmemories.com. Once you have an account, you can log into your dashboard area and begin creating your virtual memorial.    

 When to Make an Online Memorial

There are no hard and fast rules about when an online memorial should be made. You may want to make an online memorial in the days before the funeral service, or you can create one many years after your loved one’s death. In fact, why not celebrate the life of a loved one to commemorate a major milestone such as what would have been a 50^th wedding anniversary? What better way to remember a loved one than through sharing memories and honoring a life?