Respect, Acceptance and Celebration

We don't like to talk about it. We ignore it, deny it, run from it like the plague. Only we can't. We're born with its certainty etched into our DNA.

We're so terrified about death that we even make up names for it: Grim Reeper, The Pearly Gates, Passing On, to name a few.

Death isn't a topic most of us like to address. Even when I think about my grandparents' passing, I get choked up, emotional, and in a state of not-having-it-altogether. Why? Because death feels like the end, even if Alanis Morissette suggests it is not (From: Thank You "how 'bout stop equating death with stopping").

Todd Wilkinson, Canadian co-founder of Respectance.com, didn't know what to do when he got the call. His mother had died while he was on a business trip to Poland. He had no way of getting back home to pay his respects, to show people he truly cared. Leveraging the power of the Internet, he sat down with his lap top, and his Dutch business partner, Richard Derks, to create a place of celebration and tribute for those lost to us in the here and now. The result was a Web site dedicated to the lives of those we love who have passed on to Eternity.

When chatting with Richard earlier today on the phone, I was moved to tears at the sincerity of his mission. He is committed to helping the berieved leave their loved ones' footprints in Cybersand. Respectance.com, while still in beta, is readying to offer even more information on how to plan for a funeral, repatriation of the deceased in foreign countries, and forums dedicated to children's grief as well.

As a parenting humorist, I am challenged to make a funny quip to round off this entry. My guess is the people celebrated on Respectance.com are giggling uproariously as they oscillate between their own posted pictures in cyberspace and all those darned emails I've sent Oprah that got lost there, too.