MuchLoved

MuchLoved is a charitable organisation established to assist people who have suffered bereavement, particularly the death of a family member or friend. We provide and maintain individual, unique and sensitive internet tributes in order to enable you to commemorate, celebrate or simply remember a person you loved and still love. We also maintain a community to provide you with information on sources of bereavement advice and counselling, as well as mutual support. If you would like to create your own internet tribute for someone you have lost and cared about, please do give MuchLoved a try. It is very easy to create your tribute and the service has been designed to be as sensitive and as personalised as possible. MuchLoved is dedicated to helping the bereaved work through their grief by enabling people to express and share their feelings and memories. You can find out more about why we’re different by visiting us at the MuchLoved website

There has been a phenomenol increase in the use of the internet since the late 1990’s in paying tribute to a person, a group of people or a piece of history. Whilst initially these tributes were more likely to be in memory of a loved one who has died and would be a personal memoir and commemoration of remembrance there are now a number of formalised internet services for paying tribute on the internet. As well as private tributes to a loved one these now include many memorials to public figures such as Ghandi, Ronald Reagan and Diana Spencer and celebrities such as Elvis. But this is only the beginning. Starting in America there was the development of online pet cemetaries to remember pets and the term ‘tribute’ has now widened to encompass tributes to almost anything including the recent rise in tribute bands.

This is still the most common use of an internet tribute and is increasingly being used by friends and family as a tool for letting people know about their loved one who died or about the work that they did, be it serving their country in the armed forces or writing poetry or taking photography that the bereaved family now want made available and on display as a tribute to their loved one.

Some recent examples include the following:

Online Tribute for a dead soldier – Almost 100 tributes have been entered in an online memorial book to a soldier who died in Iraq.Friends and well-wishers have written dozens of messages of sympathy for Second Lieutenant Jonathan Carlos Bracho-Cooke, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra last Monday.The book has been set up on The Argus website.The messages will be passed on to 2nd Lt Bracho-Cooke’s family, who live in Sandringham Close, Hove. The 24-year-old had been due to marry his girlfriend Laura Bottomley in August.He was an officer with the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment and passed out from Sandhurst in April. Previously he was a member of the Territorial Army’s 884 troop, based in Dyke Road, Brighton, and served in Bosnia for six months in 2002. Daz Lane, from Tonbridge, Kent, wrote in the tribute book: “I was lucky to have known BC for a few years through the TA and he was one of the soundest guys I’ve ever met. He will be missed by all whose lives he touched.”

Online Tribute to a young man who died of Hodgkin’s disease – Cronan Maliki Jamel Thompson (also known throughout the ages as Plain and Simple Cronan, Nanorc, and AI at JPL), was a good friend to many in his all-too-short life. Cronan’s personality was unique; he would say anything to anyone, regardless of what they thought. Though he didn’t always make sense, he did always make you think and most definitely made you laugh. Cronan passed away the morning of November 1, 1999, at the end of a six-month battle with Hodgkin’s Disease, a form of lymphoma cancer. He was 19 years old.This tribute has been organized by Cronan’s friends to publish some of his many writings, as well as to express our own opinions on his life. Hopefully this website will serve to bring his friends together — not only those who knew him personally, but also those who came to know Cronan through the internet.

Online tribute for a murdered student – Nestled amid the everyday chatter and brash commerce of the World Wide Web is a touching tribute to Andy Moffitt, the University of Ottawa student who was stabbed to death at a Somerset Street restaurant days before Christmas. The Internet is often seen as an antiseptic, isolating medium, populated by lonely people made lonelier still by the time they spend in front of their computers. But the Internet in its original incarnation was supposed to connect people. The Moffitt family was an example of the way the medium should work. Before Andy’s death, the three Moffitt brothers joked with each other over e-mail, struck up real-time conversations using high-tech software, and enjoyed elaborate, multi-player computer games together — all over the Internet. Now, the remaining family members — Rod in Ottawa, the rest of the family in Brockville — are using it to deal with the grief of losing Andy. For Rod, 27, the Internet tribute stands as a sort of digital headstone for his brother. Memorializing loved ones online is a growing trend, but for Andy, the tribute is particularly fitting. For someone who spent hours online, an Internet tribute is as appropriate as a plaque at a baseball stadium in memory of a baseball player. The Web page avoids the syrupy sentimentality that sympathy cards can sometimes descend to. Rod’s tribute to his brother is personal and raw, and captures the tragedy of Andy’s death in a compelling way. One way his older brother escapes the pain is by working on Andy’s memorial page. The work makes him feel close to his brother, he says. Ever since Rod Moffitt Sr., a salesman for Christie Cookies, bought his two sons a TI-99 computer 16 years ago, the brothers shared a love for the technology. Rod takes solace in knowing people throughout the world can surf through his brother’s life. He says building the Web site has helped him deal with thoughts about all the people who would have met Andy, had he lived an average lifespan. Rod seems to find comfort in the idea that, just as mementos of Andy’s life exist amid the seemingly infinite Internet, that makes it more certain that Andy’s soul is somewhere amid the infinity of heaven. Internet surfers can scroll their way past smiling photos from the Moffitt family album, and read the many newspaper articles about Andy’s death and funeral. As they read, Rod hopes they feel they are getting to know his brother. “It felt good.”

There are now many tributes that have been set up to pay tribute to a public figure or celebrity who has died. This may be to celebrate their work or to express shock and disbelief at their death and are set up sometimes by individuals but also by companies and public organisations – There is even an Internet Tribute for the Queen Mother.

Recent examples of popular internet tributes are John Peel and Steve Irwin:

Steve Irwin Internet Tribute site – This morning I woke up just like every other morning but unlike every other morning I heard some very saddening news, Steve Irwin had died, my reaction was of shock and thoughts like “you silly man that croc finally caught up with you…” but when I found out it was a stingray I couldn’t understand what went wrong… I think if Steve was still with us he would explain how he was the one invading the stingrays territory and how it wasn’t its fault, he was so kind and sympathetic to nature, he did so much for animals…He was a very special person who I am genuinely upset to see pass away, rest in peace Steve you will be greatly missed. If you would like to leave your own tribute to steve please click here.

John Peel Online Tribute site – One of Britain’s most loved broadcasters, John Peel had a heart attack whilst on a working holiday in the Inca city of Cuzco in Peru on October 25, 2004. He died with his wife Sheila by his side. Tributes arrived from bands, fans and supporters from all around the world. Among the first to pay their respects were such seminal British artists as Blur, Oasis, and New Order. Prime Minister Tony Blair also paid tribute. Radio had lost an original voice, musicians had lost a champion, fans had lost a hero and Britons had lost their favourite uncle. John Peel’s death was mourned by teenagers, their parents and even their grandparents. Peel often spoke wryly of his eventual death. He once said: “I’ve always imagined I’d die by driving into the back of a truck while trying to read the name on a cassette, and people would say, ‘he would have wanted to go that way.’ Well, I want them to know that I wouldn’t.” Hopefully this biography will give you a little more insight into the man behind the microphone, splash a bit of colour on a kaleidoscopic life, and explain exactly why John Peel is so greatly missed by so many music fans

Matt Monro Internet Tribute Website – This is a tribute web-site run by the fansfor the fans of Matt Monro. All contributionsare welcome in order to keep it growing. A warm welcome to Matt Monro – an internet tribute – send us your fan submissions A warm welcome to the premier Matt Monro website. A journey through the life and career of one of Britain’s finest ever singers, with accompanying articles and photos. On our website memorial news page you will find the latest news about Matt as we receive it. We hope in future this will include details of new photos, CDs, videos and DVDs. We’ll also alert you if we hear of a forthcoming radio or TV programme which will feature him.

The deep bond many people share with their pets makes the pain of death extremely deep and many people experience healing during their grief by remembering the special times in a virtual memorial to their pet. Indeed reading the memorials makes you see how people can be more open and emotional with their feelings to pets than to other humans. There are now many organisations that operate a virtual memorial service for pets and some that even combine together memorials to pets with ones to people.

Tribute bands have become very popular since the 1990’s with tribute bands to The Beatles, Abba, The Jam, Oasis amongst others. These tribute bands often have websites to promote themselves and has helped caused some ambiguity as to the idea of an ‘Internet Tribute’ as now it may refer to a band, a location, an event – almost anything where a group of people want to come together to remember and pay tribute to something from the past.

MuchLoved was founded on the basis of using an internet tribute as a means of helping in the grieving process and the background to MuchLoved is outlined on the website. To find out how to create your own internet tribute or to see why MuchLoved are different please follow the links or visit us at http://www.muchloved.com