Obituary Guest Book

katex · 14-10-2007, 10:51

I did E-mail this to the Observer, but was not acknowledged, but feel a facility that may give some people comfort :-

Recently the husband of a dear friend passed away. As his daughter works in
the same building as myself, was aware that this lovely man did not have
much time left.

I went away on holiday on the day he passed away and had access to the
internet and to your website. As I could not pay my respects personally or
attend the funeral, I did the best I could by entering my sympathies in the
guest book available.

On my return, discussed with the daughter that I had hoped that my thoughts
had been collected. She did not know it existed and pulled down the list of
people that had signed the book, printed it out and showed it to her Mum. I
think it was a source of comfort as there were entries from people abroad
who felt they must, at least, show their sorrow for this sad loss.

I cannot find in your paper where you mention this facility ... surely when
people post their obituary in your paper, it may be helpful to mention this
service to them or a small regular mention of it in your Family Notices
page.

Just a thought.

BERNADETTE · 14-10-2007, 12:11

I would imagine there will be a lot of people who don't know about this service. You would think that the Observer would advertise the fact that it is available.

cashman · 14-10-2007, 13:17

i certainly did not know this service existed, and would have used it 5 years ago when i was abroad, think it is very poor on the part of the observer, but thats nowt new with em these days.

WillowTheWhisp · 14-10-2007, 17:48

How sad to think that there could be many condolence messages totally missed by the families because they are completely unaware of this.

katex · 14-10-2007, 18:16

Spoke again to the daughter this week, and she mentioned the very sad tragedy of the young fire officer who was killed on his bike. She knew him and looked on their site for messages. Said not one, and only because she felt people do not know about it, because lots and lots of people attended this service and offered their condolences.

I know some may say that sympathisers send cards, but not always possible, and sometimes if have lost touch in the past do not always have the address or are now living abroad.

It is a lovely touch by the Observer, but no good if hidden away on their web site and no direction to it.

cashman · 14-10-2007, 18:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

How sad to think that there could be many condolence messages totally missed by the families because they are completely unaware of this.

yep we really struggled to get flights home after a family death 3 yrs ago, fortunatly we managed to get back the evening before the funeral, if we had been unable this service would have been at least something, to find out later would have gone spare, these people at the observer do not realise the problem, and as well as poor its pig ignorant not to respond to kates e-mail.

BERNADETTE · 14-10-2007, 18:21

Think I might call into the office and see if that helps in any way, it should be made known for people who may want to use the service.

Nadine · 31-10-2007, 13:37

I would have used this service three years ago when I lost my dad very suddenly. We moved to Canada in 1969 and dad continued to have lots of family and friends in the Accrington area. We did get hold of the Observer through our funeral home here and they did post an announcement but this way would have been better.