An article appeared in the Providence Journal newspaper a few days before with the abiguous headline "Guest books offer a new type of mourning". Someone on my staff cut it out and passed it along, though I did not look at it closely until a few days ago. Turns out the "guest books" talked about in the article refer to ONLINE guest books such as you see through Legacy.com or through certain funeral homes websites.
In summary the article talks about an unexpected use that occurs with these online resources. After a period of time, family members start using these guest books as a message area to "speak" with the person now deceased, much as people have done in years past but stopping at a grave stone at the cemetery and "talking" to the person remember by the monument.
Obviously this talking out process aids people through the transitions of mourning and grief, we have done this for thousands of years. Only with computer systems such as we have now, these expressions become just a little more public in that others can come along and view these comments the next time they visit the guest book.
We have seen this phenomenon with our own funeral home website. A young woman died back in March and the family received a number of condolence messages. Since the initial flurry, three more messages have appeared from her mother. One talked about the beginning of little league season with the deceased's son starting 3rd base "just like her" (an avid softball player into adulthood). Another message came at the time a "niece" being born and the last at the time of her 30th birthday.
Do not miss out on this. Do not let Legacy.com gain all the financial and more importantly the EMOTIONAL benefits from providing online guestbook services. This should be part of the brand of your funeral home. End of the question.
[Note: The article mentioned above originally appeared in the Albany Times Union newspaper, though the text is now in a pay per view archive. You can find a copy of the article at the Indianapolis Star website at the following link: Guest Books Article ]
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