Online Condolences & How to Ensure that Your Words of Comfort are Delivered

Betty A. From Palatka

Q: I recently left condolences online for a friend. Is there any way to ensure that my message got read by his family?



A: The answer to that question depends upon whether you left your condolence on a newspaper related site, or if you left your condolence on the funeral home’s website.


Since 2004 our funeral home website has hosted obituary information that allows those who are online to leave memories and share messages for surviving family members.

We understand that many people still do not have Internet access or even a
computer.We have setup a kiosk at our funeral home in San Mateo that will
allow those who do not have a computer to stop by our funeral home and
leave a condolence online.

Knowing that some families we serve do not have easy access to the Internet, we print and deliver a copy of the online condolences to the surviving family members about one week after funeral services have concluded.


We wait that week knowing that many people who are out of town when an obituary is published, take advantage of the online condolences to share memories and tributes.


Once the different messages are put together, they are printed on paper that is specially designed to fit into the custom guest registry that a family selects during their funeral arrangement conference.


In addition to the printed copy for families, we renew a hosting agreement annually to ensure the long term access to obituary and tribute archives.


Even if a family declines to have an obituary published in a daily newspaper, we can still take the time to publish the obituary and tribute on the funeral home’s website.


Contrast this service with Legacy.com, the world’s largest obituary hosting corporation. The business strategy is to partner with local newspapers by hosting obituaries from the newspaper online for a limited time (usually 30 days) for a small fee (this fee is usually built into the cost billed by the newspaper for the obituary).


Unfortunately, the obituary on Legacy.com is not up indefinitely, and condolences are deleted after 30 days, unless someone from the family pays almost $40 to maintain the memorial site for an additional year, or $90 for a perpetual site.


It is quite possible, unless a family is checking and individually printing the messages of condolences on the Legacy.com site, that they are being overlooked.


My advice to those who leave electronic messages of condolence, is to visit the funeral home’s website, where the message is not going to be deleted 30 days after it is posted. Instead, we intend to maintain memorial sites for many, many years.

www.wattsfuneralhomes.com