Hacker News Reader

Comment by ececconi | Hacker News Reader

After my dad died my freshman year of college, I wrote a letter and sealed it. It's so hard to understand that a person that was so important to you won't be there to hear everything you wanted to tell them.

Since then, I've loved studying letters between friends and lovers.

This is a great letter.

View on HN

> It's so hard to understand that a person that was so important to you won't be there to hear everything you wanted to tell them.

I agree. I know this is going to sound creepy, but in certain African countries like Ghana there is a video made of the funeral just like they do for weddings. And when you miss whoever has passed away, you get to watch the video. It doesn't bring them back but you get to see the person.

doesn't sound creepy to me at all. i wish it was done more.

i wanted to take pics and video at a funeral as there was a family member who couldn't be there, and was told to stop (by other family). Same family member who couldn't there was, days later, at a funeral of her own (in a different country) and received a DVD of the service. Very much 'cultural norms' at play, and it'll be many more years before video of funerals is considered 'normal'.

Not creepy at all. I wanted to make a video of my brother but I was immediately shunned by some religious elders.

How dare you try to grieve in your own way.

> a person that was so important to you won't be there

As I understand it, we die two deaths. Once when your last breath leaves your body and next when those who remember you say your name for the last time.

By continuing to tell their stories, continuing to read their words, continuing to live, cherishing and remembering, loving, they also live... Life extends through our bodies and beyond.

I've often thought the same thing. If I'm ever in an old cemetery, I walk through the graves and whisper names that are still legible to give the forgotten people one more time when someone said their names.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com