After writing about my aunt, I discovered legacy.com’s obituary database. This is a nice service (and important service) which allows people to view obituary information and even post on guest books. But alas, legacy.com is charging a small fee to access the archives. Hello, isn’t the point of obituaries to store the archives of people who died?
It looks like the newspaper subscribes to this service, and they pass on the costs to the consumer. After browsing some more, it appears that legacy.com offers a free obituary for 30 days, then give relatives the option to sponsor the guest book for a year for $30 and permanently for $79. Ok, I can’t complain about this really. At least it gives people a free 30 day service when it matters (true cheapskates could just cut and paste comments from readers onto another page).
If I had money to burn, I would start a legacy/archiving service for individuals. We’re just losing a lot due to faulty media and inadequate planning for archives.
On another note, I read somewhere that if you donate your body to science, they pay the cost to have your body disposed.