An Internet Garden of Remembrance

An Internet 'Garden of Remembrance' launched by an Internet World Wide Web site called DeathNET has begun offering space for people to place obituaries online as a permanent or temporary memorial. Everyone can now, potentially at least, be remembered for ever, with the story of their lives accessible everywhere for as long as civilization lasts. The following adapted extracts are from DeathNET material e-mailed to The Natural Death Centre by John Hofness (at jh@islandnet.com or fax 604 386 3800).

Consider the possibilities of a time-capsule in cyberspace.

Here are just a few of the unique features which are possible when you create a Commemorative [World Wide Web] Homepage [on Internet] for a loved one:

Create a lifelong 'photo album' - depicting the highlights of a person's life.

Compile a list of the person's favourite music - with sound clips from vinyl records or CDs.

Reproduce a favourite recipe (or several) from the collection of someone who was a 'great cook' - complete with photographs of the finished 'dishes'.

Create pages with excerpts from a person's diary - each 'page' may be illustrated with photos or graphics.

Include tributes (written or spoken) from friends and loved ones - words that will span the ages in the future.

Compile a list of a person's favourite books - with links to pages of excerpts from those books.

Include excerpts from personal letters - and other documents.

Excerpts from home videos.

Compile a list of a person's likes and dislikes (with possible links to examples).

If you know of someone who is dying, he or she can make a 'Statement to the World' as part of their Commemorative Homepage - in which they are free to say anything they like about what life has meant to them.

These are just a few of the creative possibilities.

John Hofness adds:

We are going to be guided by the public response to this new use of cyberspace. Basically, at one level, we will offer simple (text only) obituaries which will be maintained for a week, a month, or longer, depending on the wishes of the individual or family. This service will be offered at inexpensive rates, well within the reach of anyone.

It is more difficult to cost-out Commemorative Homepages since they will vary widely in their creative ambitiousness. As technology improves (that is to say, even within the next year) it will not be so time-consuming to playback a video or audio file as it is at present.

We have a team of computer pros working with us to help make DeathNET (and Garden of Remembrance, in particular) a state-of-the-art WEB site. We have several stages of renovation planned - although it never pays to get too far ahead of what the 'average' Internet user is capable of accessing with medium-range modems and possibly slow links along the way.

For the Commemorative Homepages we will work individually and creatively with the person who wishes to commission such a site so that - no matter what their budget - they get the best possible results for the time, money and effort invested in each project.

We can maintain such a homepage indefinitely into the future (by contractual agreement) but we will no doubt suggest that a person 'live with' a homepage for a year or two, making changes where need be - for unlike words carved in marble, a homepage can be changed and extended in many different ways.

We will soon be able to have a soundtrack (for instance) of a person's favourite music playing in real time, while one browses through the highlights of that person's life, in text and pictures.

Garden of Remembrance is not just 'a collection of obituaries' but a place where a person may be appreciated forever (just as certain 'movie stars' are on the basis of their classic films). We will encourage those who commission these sites to be honest (even irreverent to some degree) in how a 'loved one' is depicted and preserved. Something closer to nature, as opposed to being awash in warm sentiment. Garden of Remembrance is a place where the lives of so-called 'ordinary people' can be transformed through multimedia art into something which reveals and cherishes what was most special about them.

Decades, even centuries from now, one's descendants will be able to see and hear their forebears as they were in their own time. We will be able to record special messages from one generation to those in the future. There may be many living today who think all that 'Internet stuff' is pie in the sky, but those who come after will accept computerised mass communication as a given, and to those generations, the Garden of Remembrance will be an enduring reminder of the lives which have preceded them.

Done properly, a Commemorative Homepage will make fascinating viewing and reading even to hundreds or thousands of people who never knew or heard of the individual they are becoming acquainted with through this service.

The Garden of Remembrance Internet address is http.//www.islandnet.com/~deathnet/garden.html; e-mail to rights@islandnet.com; PO Box 39018, Victoria BCV8V 4X8, British Columbia, Canada (fax 604 386 3800).

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