When people prepare for their passing, be it imminent or (hopefully) in the distant future, one thing they want to be sure of is that their stories have been told. They want to be sure that when they are gone, people remember who they were. Some people will create videos to be shown at funerals, complete with pictures and voice-overs; others will agonize over the perfect headstone inscription, so that anyone walking by can get a sense of who they were on this earth. But what if those two things could be combined? What if a headstone could do more than give dates and a summation of a life? What if a headstone could tell the story of a life?
Thanks to technology, that's actually possible.
But how?
The technology is some that you see daily on everything from restaurant menus to advertising. A tiny square, called a QR (Quick Response) code, can be read by an app on your smart phone. Scan the code with the app and you will be provided a link. In advertising, it's often a link to a product website or to a consumer poll, but embedded in a headstone, it's a link to a biographical website. Right there, on a smart phone, in the cemetery, friends, loved ones and even perfect strangers can see pictures, watch videos and read the life story of the person who rests in beneath that marker.
Where and when?
The marker is recessed into the headstone. It's no bigger than an inch and a half, but if someone doesn't wish to have a code on the front of the stone, it can be placed on the side or the back as well. The code can be placed in the headstone when it is commissioned, but it also possible to place one later, with permission from the cemetery.
The website can be updated at the discretion of whomever has been chosen to run it. Pictures can be changed as desired and information updated as necessary.
Why?
A high-tech headstone is a link to a different time, not just within a family, but as communities and even as nations. Some people have amazing stories to tell and would like to share them with the world, others just would like for their grandchildren to be able to learn about them in a modern way. A QR code on a headstone is a way to educate current generations about the past through they eyes of someone who lived through it. Simply put, a high-tech headstone is a way for a person's life to be accurately memorialized and remembered.
As people begin to get their final preparations in order, they can begin to fear they will be forgotten once they have passed. Thanks to technology, their headstone can now be a modern day book that will keep their stories, and their memory, alive for generations to come. For more information, contact a company like McGee Monuments.
Share7 April 2015
A couple of weeks ago, one of my dear family friend’s suffered the loss of her husband. After a brief illness, he passed away at a local hospital. Immediately after his passing, she started planning the funeral arrangements. She didn’t want his funeral to be a sad occasion. Instead, she wanted the service to celebrate his amazing life. She worked tirelessly with the professional staff at a local funeral home in order to plan the order and type of service for the funeral. On this blog, you will discover tips for planning a funeral service that will celebrate the life of your deceased loved one.