From beyond the grave

A website has been launched that will allow users to speak to loved ones from beyond the grave.
Messages are stored on www.leavealetter.com in complete confidence and can only be accessed by the writer. After death they can be read by intended recipients.

The site has been founded by two friends after one of them was left a comforting letter by her father after an eight year struggle with cancer. It told the daughter how much her father loved her and how proud he was of her and her family. She advised the friend's husband, who was terminally ill, to do the same for her but unfortunately he left it too late. This encouraged them to provide the service for others

Users open an account with a password that allows them to write up to eight confidential letters. A certificate with information about the site is sent to them that can be kept with their will. On their death, the recipients post or scan a copy of the death certificate to leavealetter.com. Once the death certificate is approved, they are emailed the password which allows them to read and print off the letters.

Is this a good idea? Possibly for some but not for all. What if you want to say things only to one person and never risk them coming into the public arena. For my money far better to say what you have to say to well ahead of no longer being able to say it. I am not sure I want loved ones to go into the future hanging on to a letter thinking they are hanging on to me. Rather let memory do its work as well as it can and let the bereaved move on and the departed rest in peace.

Of course, others may think differently and I am happy for them to do so.