A sudden death, or the inability to travel, may make it impossible for those who want to pay their respects to be there in person. As Barbara Ciara reports, a local funeral home has introduced a new concept that makes saying goodbye as easy as logging on.
Accepting the death of a loved one, for many families, begins with the viewing. It's emotional; it's difficult, and it's public.
One funeral home has come up with a concept that allows you to use your computer to grieve in private simply by logging on for a virtual viewing.
Shannon Gaddis is the Web Developer at Carlos Howard funeral home in Norfolk, she produces the on-line videos.
"The goal is to provide a sense of being there."
Gaddis believes its important to provide movement in the video to give family and friends of the departed an experience that makes them feel they are literally walking into the viewing room.
"We don't want to give them a falsified of being here simply by putting the camera stationary so the angle movement is to give them a virtual presence."
Funeral director Carlos Howard told me the idea for the new concept came to him when a family was inconvenienced by the viewing hours.
"A family had gotten in town at 8:30 and viewing time was eight o'clock and everybody had left, and it would be nice to have a source where they could view."
Very often, the viewing is the last time family and friends can see their loved one before the casket is closed for a final time. Howard has been offering virtual funerals by streaming it on their website for years, so he challenged his web developer to add the viewing feature.
"We can do that and all of a sudden from that morning by two that afternoon it was up and running"
According to Howard, there is another benefit for those who have phobias about viewing the dead. The virtual viewing also provides a buffer between you and the dearly departed.
Accepting the death of a loved one, for many families, begins with the viewing. It's emotional; it's difficult, and it's public.
One funeral home has come up with a concept that allows you to use your computer to grieve in private simply by logging on for a virtual viewing.
Shannon Gaddis is the Web Developer at Carlos Howard funeral home in Norfolk, she produces the on-line videos.
"The goal is to provide a sense of being there."
Gaddis believes its important to provide movement in the video to give family and friends of the departed an experience that makes them feel they are literally walking into the viewing room.
"We don't want to give them a falsified of being here simply by putting the camera stationary so the angle movement is to give them a virtual presence."
Funeral director Carlos Howard told me the idea for the new concept came to him when a family was inconvenienced by the viewing hours.
"A family had gotten in town at 8:30 and viewing time was eight o'clock and everybody had left, and it would be nice to have a source where they could view."
Very often, the viewing is the last time family and friends can see their loved one before the casket is closed for a final time. Howard has been offering virtual funerals by streaming it on their website for years, so he challenged his web developer to add the viewing feature.
"We can do that and all of a sudden from that morning by two that afternoon it was up and running"
According to Howard, there is another benefit for those who have phobias about viewing the dead. The virtual viewing also provides a buffer between you and the dearly departed.
Digg
Twitter
Facebook
StumbleUpon
