Wanna pay tribute to the dead rich and famous? Go online
MANILA, Philippines—Forgot to pay your respects to the late President Ramon Magsaysay this All Saints’ Day or on All Souls’ Day? Is it physically impossible for you to personally lay down your flowers on Karl Marx’s grave in England?
Not to worry. Believe it or not, there’s a site on the Internet that can help you precisely with that.
The website www.findagrave.com is an online database containing some of the world’s most famous names and their corresponding burial grounds—a big help to those keen on visiting not only their departed loved ones but the celebrities and politicians they look up to who have passed away.
Aside from serving as a database, the site allows members who cannot afford to visit the graves of famous personalities to offer “virtual flowers” and post notes.
More than 50 years after his death in a plane crash, messages of condolences continued to pour in for Magsaysay, regarded as “the man of the masses.”
User Luigi, for example, sent a bouquet of blue flowers to the late President. One who called herself Mary added a personal touch to her white flowers by sending a personalized message that read, “Rest in peace, Ramon.”
Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway has his own share of mourners.
As recently as October 26, one who identified himself as Pat Gafford Bunch lit blue candles and laid blue flowers on the writer’s virtual grave.
Another, Trez, preferred to send a simple message to the author of “The Old Man and the Sea” in French. “MERCI,” he said.
On former Senaor Benigno Aquino Jr.’s grave, user Mellissa Lake, who is listed as from Illinois in the United States, laid down a virtual bouquet of pink and yellow flowers.
Len and Lynne Hummel, for their part, offered a Hopi prayer—or a prayer recited by native Americans—to the assassinated opposition leader.
“Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on the ripened grain. I am the gentle Autumn’s rain. When you awaken in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that sparkle at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there, I did not die…,” they wrote.
Some site users preferred to light “virtual candles” in memory of the senator’s late wife, former president Corazon Aquino.
One Nancy Forrest lit a yellow candle, its reflection moving in crystal clear “virtual water.” User LenBenHummel did the same, and included a personal note: “Tribute to a great woman & President who never got ‘addicted’ to power-politics—and truly GREAT achievement (!) rest in peace,” he said.
All in all, since 2009, a total of 226 people were listed as having “paid their respects” to the woman many consider as an icon of democracy.
Even those who wish to pay their respects to actors and sportsmen can do so through the site.
The late actor Johnny Delgado, for example, who is buried at Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City, has had 36 users honoring him in the virtual world since two years ago.
Lisa Greenman offered Delgado virtual purple flowers, while user Gaby Hayes, preferred to give a bouquet of pink ones.
The virtual grave for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, although existing, was empty of messages.
A message from the web administrator said the feature of sending virtual flowers to the site had been “turned off” because it was being “continually misused.”
The same message appeared on the virtual grave of Marx.
Marcos’ and Marx’s virtual graves each showed a flower with a sad face.
The Find a Grave Memorial website has so far had 6,088,592 hits. It lists Jim Tipton, a Utah resident, as its founder, and says Tipton came up with the idea in 1995 as a result of his obsession with visiting the graves of famous people.
The site also boasts information from over 300,000 cemeteries in more than 170 countries, which include the United States, Canada, England, and several others from Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.
“We believe this information is important for many reasons. It is of great historical importance to have a record of all those who have been a part of our collective humanity. Burial information is a wonderful resource for people researching their families (genealogists),” a note on the website read.
That is not all that you can find on the Internet—offering Mass for the dead is also just a click away.
Filipinos who can’t go to church or to the cemetery on All Saints’ or All Souls’ Day to offer Mass for their departed loved ones can make their requests electronically via an online portal the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has set up.
Through the website, https://undasonline.com, donors may simply type the names of their dead and the list will be automatically sent to the Church hierarchy’s media office, the initiator of the online project.
“From there, we would issue the names of the souls to our priests either via text message or e-mail,” CBCP media director Msgr. Pedro Quitorio told reporters.
Filipinos abroad, especially those working on ships, can avail of the service for free, Quitorio said.
“They can just log in on the Internet and send their request by putting the names of their dead and we will say a Mass for them within the six-day period at the CBCP chapel,” Quitorio added.
Unlike the old-fashioned way, where one was expected to enclose a monetary donation in an envelope with the list of the names of the dead, the online initiative does not make donations mandatory.
“They don’t have to send a donation to offer Mass for their dead loved ones … this service is free,” said Quitorio.
For extra-generous donors, they might send any amount, even as small as P5 through Paypal, among other online money transfers, Quitorio added.
