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Funeral industry trend gives mourning a high-tech twist PDF Print E-mail
Written by DeadGirl   
Sunday, 11 June 2006
KANSAS CITY (AP) - Most people visiting cemeteries this weekend might have paid their respects with a visit to a grave, conjuring up memories of a person from a headstone.
An increasing number, however, might have stopped at a computer screen in a funeral home, pushed a button and watched as the faces and voices of the departed came alive.

It is called a funeral tribute or life story, and it is a trend that is helping to reshape the funeral industry - not always known for being trendy.

In recent years, however, online guest books have become the norm, and now an increasing number of funerals are being broadcast on the Internet.

The digital life stories can be created by people before they pass away. They record stories from their lives and final messages and thoughts for their loved ones to see after they are gone. They add photographs, family trees, favorite songs and clips from old home movies.

Or sometimes, loved ones put together the life stories as tributes to the deceased. The results are stored on a DVD, on a computer or on the Internet - a sort of digital time capsule for future generations.

"These are very personal remembrances," said Randy Murray of Forever Funeral Homes and Cemeteries, owner of Mount Washington Forever Cemetery in Independence. "Anybody can sell grass and granite. We’re taking on the responsibility of being the caretaker of someone’s memories."

The tributes have long been the privilege of the rich and famous. But now technology has made that available to anyone with a video camera.

Many funeral homes and cemeteries in the Kansas City area now offer tributes as a service. At Mount Washington Forever, a professionally created, 10-minute tribute costs about $500.

Ilene and Kent Hall are in the process of completing their life stories at Mount Washington. They were immediately taken with the idea that they could record their voices and appearances, along with interviews of family members, for future generations. They have five children and nine grandchildren.

The Halls, of Kansas City, are 66 now and perfectly healthy. That is why they wanted to start the process now.

"It’s sort of like a gift to our family and the future great-grandchildren," Kent Hall said. Recording the life stories was not a morbid affair, Ilene Hall said. An interviewer came to their home. The couple wore casual clothes and talked about their lives and their families. She made a point of talking about how her grandparents lived in a sod house and traveled in a covered wagon, and how her parents drove a horse and buggy during the Depression.

"It’s a living picture album of who you are and who your loved ones are," she said. "This way, it passes down to those who wouldn’t have a clue about those things. It’s a connection for future generations to our past."

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/May/20060530News008.asp
 
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