Official World Cemetery
Official World Cemetery
It is a sensitive subject - death. Many people see their family and friends get older, some diagnosed with a deadly decease, and yet, when death comes, it seems to catch us by surprise. Death captures s at any age so there may be no warning at all.
A funeral is arranged, family and friends show up wearing black. Tears fall and the grieving process is in full swing. For some people, grieving can be short term, for others, it last forever. Different cultures deal with the loss of a loved one in many ways, but for the average Canadian, a traditional funeral cost on average $15,000.
To help with both of these problems, a website has emerged with memorial pages that are designed to last forever that you can revisit year after year, and also a crowd funding platform that allows you to raise money not only for the funeral expenses but also to help the family of a lost loved one transition forward.
OfficialWorldCemetery.com is a Canadian based memorial website that features not only crowdfunding, but also gives users the opportunity to create their own time-capsule of their life, a celebration, a memory wall, ... their own digital footprint.
The goal is to provide an online cemetery on your smart phone or tablet. Many people bury a loved one in a city then move away for a job or something, then end up being 5-6 hours drive away from the burial site. By have an online memorial, you have the memory page of your loved one in the palm of your hand, and OfficialWorldCemetery.com wants your memory pages to last more than forever.
There is a Pagan belief that, "What is remembered lives." There are other crowd funding platforms out there, but the memory is erased when the funding goal is reached. OfficialWorldCemetery.com is a crowd funding platform with a forever memory. They specialize in raising money for memorials and money to help the family transition forward when losing a loved one.
"That is what makes us different. We are a forever memory you can revisit.
They even offer virtual gifts that are posted to your loved ones wall and at the same time, use the small revenue raised for the $1.99 gift to keep the website free and forever.
OfficialWorldCemetery.com is a local Ottawa based idea for the future of memorials. Based on a crowd funding business model, this website is designed to help you create a memory of a lost loved one forever.
OfficialWorldCemetery.com is a local Ottawa based idea for the future of memorials. Based on a crowd funding business model, this website is designed to help you create a memory of a lost loved one forever.
The site has a goal to stay FREE and FOREVER and is asking people to help give this humanitarian project a kick start with donations. Simply visit the website and click Why Donate in the menu.
Official World Cemetery is user friendly, and allows users to create memorial pages that you can add photos and videos. It has a crowd funding platform that helps raise money for:
-the many funeral expenses,
- for the family to transition and continue including the children
There are other crowd funding sites but not one like this. Official World Cemetery is in every language, and its features include a Time Capsule that allows a person who is older, sick or someone that wants to preplan, to create a memory wall that includes their celebration of life through their photos and videos.
The time capsule videos are designed to say goodbye to your loved ones, or even hello to an unborn grandchild for the future. Other funeral websites exists but do you have the confidence that they will be there tomorrow, or next month or next year. OfficialWorldCemetery.com wants to be there forever, with your help.
The crowd funding feature allows families to create a funding within the online memorial that they create with 95 % going to the family less PayPal expenses. The page will stay for you to revisit at your convenience. When conducting surveys to see what people thought of having a forever online memorial, one person commented:
"My wife is buried in a city I used to live in. I moved for work and now her burial plot is six hours away one way; that is a 12 hour trip. I feel guilty when I do not visit, but now I can go one more time and take pictures of her headstone, of the cemetery, with fresh laid flowers on her grave and post them on a page especially designed for her. I will be able to have her in my hand, on my tablet or smart phone and share a prayer, comment on our anniversary, add an old photo of us. I believe this is the future!"
There have been parents, spouses, and close friends who mourn a lost loved one, that will call a phone number of the deceased with hopes of hearing their voice, their greeting...
"Just because I could call and hear her voice, I'm thinking 'I am connected, she will get my message.' It was like we had a conversation."
Official World Cemetery is planning to not only include the time capsule feature but also a message center to send your thoughts and prayers. Currently users can leave a comment on the memory pages but the next update will improve the message feature to your loved ones. It will be a venue to share your love, give your forgiveness, help with your grief, and help you remember.
This website is Ottawa born, and not from a giant tech company. It started with a friend not being able to make it to a funeral. Arriving back in the country six weeks later and going directly to see the surviving spouse. Asking them is there is anything online that he could share a few kind words, add a photo, comment of how wonderful a person they were?
The response was voiced with the strength of still handling grief, of attempting not to release more tears and their words were:
"There was but I am not sure if it is still there, and even if it was, how would you find it?"
The words of a man who was married for over 50 years to his wife, his best friend, and only six weeks after the loss of his wife, he did not have the confidence that the digital footprint of the biggest love of his life, was still there.
A seed was planted that day, the idea of building a site that would give people the confidence that their loved one's memories would survive, that they could upload or link videos and hear their loved one's voice. That they could upload and share pictures, and that they could raise money to help with this tragic loss.
Categories were created. The first - Our Loved Ones - for everyday people, the second,- Fallen Heroes for the firefighters, the police, soldiers and the brave souls. The third category, Celebrities: the actors/actresses, the musicians and the pubic figures.
Lise B, a director of the company commented. "We want to be the "go to" website where you can search for a friend or celebrity and see if they have passed. There is no database out there that has that information for the world and in a world of fake news, we want to be the authentic and official place to go."
So what is the plan of Official World Cemetery?
According to Ken M, a director of the company, "We are going to build organically, with real people creating the page for their loved one. We will grow quickly as over 55 million people die per year. We will help people raised money through crowd funding and hopefully a little for ourselves to keep the site free and forever by our call for donations on our site. We will be here for tomorrow!
(more to come...)
