Forever Story?

I love looking round old graveyards, especially at the oldest graves, looking at the names and imagining their lives but is a place to imagine and reflect not to actually see the deceased, that somehow makes something solemn and peaceful a bit tawdry in my opinion. Though am sure it will soon become a trend. And am with an earlier poster who mentioned about photos of the deceased on more recent graves, I also find this a bit disconcerting, I suppose because it is making death more personal and real.
In any case is just my opinion.

I am a bit wistful about graveyards and graves. For me they are almost liminal places where you go to visit the ancestors. Where I live we have a lovely old cemetery where history blends with nature and the present day. We also have another new cemetery attached to the parish church where the graves honestly look like tributes to Hollywood movie stars. So, it's a 'no' from me to a QR code on a headstone.

Rather unnecessary I would have though and also a tad tacky

What use would a QR code be in one hundred years? People will not even be using QR scanners in the future.

Louella12

There's a grave in USA. Married couple. They were competitive dancers.

The QR code is footage of them dancing the waltz when they were young.

It's actually rather lovely

That’s very touching.

None of this is obligatory, so I don’t see the problem. Our local churchyard used to be a complete overgrown, neglected mess, but is now looked after and kept beautifully by a group of volunteers. Some very old Commonwealth war graves have come to light, and these now have QR codes linking to a website with details of the stories behind them. I don’t see anything ghoulish about it. I think it’s lovely that these people are no longer completely forgotten.

I think it’s an inevitable development given the way digital everything rules our lives. I still struggle to manage our new fancy pants tv it’s so overly complicated, just because it can be. I wouldn’t want a QR or to view one. But I bet they’ll be commonplace soon, or at least after we’re all gone.

Another grifting idea by some who are preying on families grief.

No.

For simplicity a QR can be linked to a website or Facebook or other social media account. No great shakes setting the system up. My advice was purely to make people aware there was a need to pay for the service.

It might be possible to do this in a municipal cemetery. However, in a churchyard you would have to have permission and I very much doubt that it would be granted.

On memorial benches and similar it could be interesting.

OldFrill

This isn't particularly new and it has it's place for those that want to share the deceased's history. I assume you could create the QR code yourself at no cost. I've seen similar on memorial benches where it can contribute greatly to local history.

Yes you could create the QR code yourself, but of course you also need to create a website to host the information the QR code links to, in perpetuity.

Not for me, but then again I’ve told my family I want to be cremated and my ashes scattered. I do however wear a pendent my brother got made which includes a small amount of my parents ashes, which I know some will find ghoulish, but it brings me comfort. I gave him a key ring which you can project a light through that shows our parents on their wedding day. We lost our parents when we were very young, so it a way to have them with us.

I disagree with many posters on this topic. When walking through a graveyard in a different area recently, I was surprised to see a few photographs attached to headstones: one for each deceased.

On inspection, the deceased was elderly but the photograph was of them as a young vibrant person. I thought that this was a rather lovely idea - not that there is anything wrong with ageing - I embrace it but one showed a woman in her prime and I rather liked the idea.

I don't really agree with the the QR code idea (for where will it end, a video of one's 'best bits' of a life?) but I thought that a single photo was rather lovely. I didn't feel it was tasteless or tacky.

HousePlantQueen

Not for me thanks. I find the gravestones with photographs of the deceased disturbing too, they are a reminder that there once was a living, breathing person who is now by your feet. I may not have described this very well,sorry.

I know it’s awful, but I find this a bit disturbing too

Oooh definitely not for me, my late parents would also have a pink fit! Sorry, imo bit weird and creepy!

Can’t see the point of it. Those who know me well will have memories and photos of me. I do find graveyards interesting and they remind me that a person actually lived but don’t see the need to find out more about them.

I m not keen on this everyone is going to have a different take on someone’s life, so it depends who writes it, one child’s view of their parent may be very different to another, unless the dead person writes it themselves before they die
anyway I m getting cremated so doesn’t fit

There's a grave in USA. Married couple. They were competitive dancers.

The QR code is footage of them dancing the waltz when they were young.

It's actually rather lovely

What on earth is weird about an online tribute, that's all it is.

Too weird for me

Nope, not for me. The thought makes me feel very uncomfortable.

Definitely not

A big fat NO!

No it sounds disrespectful.
There is a place for technology a grave yard is not one. Especially with children's graves being there.

M0nica

Sounds ghoulish - and I would worry about the motives of those accessing them and what they might do with the information they would get from such a device.

Yes, that would be a concern for me too. Not for me, I'm afraid.