Just wondering, when you get the news of a classmate that passes way, do you add something to the homepage about the sad news, referring classmates to the in memory page? Or do you just update the info on the In memory page? Wasnt sure if it would be appropriate to put something on the homepage..
Any thoughts?

Cheryl Badger wrote:

When the death is recent, we add an annoucement to the home page.

The day I created our web site, I found the obit of one of our classmates. I added it to the "In Memory" section and I added an announcement on our homepage. It's still there, but I plan on removing the announcement soon.

Maybe we are too insensitive, but we do the following (Actually had this happen last week). Was notified by e-mail on Wednesday that a classmate had passed on and the funeral was to be on Friday. I went to the local paper, found the obituary, copied it to the In Memory section. Then I sent a blast email to all classmates indicating that the classmate had passed and the obituary was posted on the site. Within several hours, the in memory page had been hit over 30 times (out of 73 classmates). I cannot see that anyone would not want an announcement posted, especially if they are (were) active members of the site, ie. have logged in and signed up.

We have always promoted the site as a "Communications Tool" for our class and as a central place for information on the happenings of our classmates.

Just my .02 worth.

We have lost 2 classmates in the last month.

I send an email out to all classmates and put an announcement on home page like: Sadly we have lost another one of our classmates. John Doe passed away at his home on Jan. 10. For further information, please go to the 'In Memory' section.

I go to the funeral home's web page, copy and paste the obituary and put it on their in memory page.

I been told by many classmates they appreciate this so much.. Especially, the ones who are in Florida for the winter or the ones who live away.

I've put it on the homepage announcements with an expiration (no pun) date.

Thank you all! I sent an email to the class, and then also posted an announcement. One thing I corrected however, was that the class email included the deceased's email. I removed him from the distribtion list, as I thought this could upset the family. Once a classmate is identified as deceased, shouldnt they be removed from the class email distribution list?

No. Many times a son or daugheter or friends wants to take over correspondence for the deceased Classmate...talking about funeral arrangements or whatever else. It's very common.

You do, however, have a quick way to remove the deceased Classmate from your distrubtion list yourself if you want to -- just delete the Classmate's email address from his or her Profile.