To not get people putting messages on FB to relatives that have been dead for years?

[Wampingwillow]

I just don't get why anyone would want to wish their mother/ father/brother etc a happy birthday on Facebook when they've been dead for 10 years! Obviously they are dead and I would expect that the family and close friends would know that it would have been their birthday so why the need to let everyone else know? Is it just so they can get loads of 'sending you hugz Hun' messages and while we are at it why to people like the status? Do they really like the fact that your relative is dead?

I honestly don't get why some people find this hard to grasp. I have three children and I adore them of course. If, God forbid, one of them dies before me and my friends and family stop mentioning them it would repeatedly break my heart. It's unbearable. It only takes an ounce of imagination to to work that through and put yourself in that place. I don't find it very easy to mention my friends lost children but you know what - a couple of times a year I can manage it. That's not a lot to ask from people is it?

in fact I go on fb all the time in the hope someone has mentioned my mum (relatives all live far away)

but its never happened

I'm closing fb because of this, it brings me nothing but pain

When James died, FB was a way for all of us to express our collective shock and grief.

We all post on his wall as a way of keeping him close and his memory alive.

I love my son, I can't hug him on his birthday, christmas, easter whatever. I can't tell him about a film I have seen that he would love. I can't tell him good/bad/trivial news because he isn't here. I can't talk to him about music or a gig we have been to. His brother can't talk to him about girls/love/life etc.

We put these things on FB, because we can, because it is the only way we can 'connect' with him.

If the OP doesn't get that, then lucky her. She obviously has her children here, she can hold them, talk to them and tell them she loves them.

I wish I didn't have to post on FB to tell my son how much he means to me. I wish he was here for me to tell him.

I am sorry that my loss and grief offends you, but its my life now, it is the life of everyone who has lost a loved one. I will keep James' memory alive for as long as I live. I don't actually care who that offends if I am being honest. Not having James here is a much bigger offence in my very humble opinion.

Just because someone had died it doesn't mean they have never lived op, never loved or been loved

the body has nailed it for me. My mum was such a beautiful soul and I never ever want her to be forgotten!!

mumof2teenboys my deepest sympathy
One of my son's friends died suddenly last year, his page is still active.
I feel the FB page gives them an outlet for their grief and a way of remembering someone who was important to them, who touched their lives. I feel it is an important way to work through their feelings of loss, many can say things in FB about how bereft they feel that they wouldn't normally say in conversation.

OP as has been said, visiting graves, lighting candles, announcements in newspaper personal columns have all been used in the past as memorials.
FB is just the modern equivalent.

OP you dont need to read or respond to posts on FB if you dont want.

You dont have the right to sit in judgement over how people feel grief and you seriously lack empathy

I've come back to this thread because I've been thinking about it since yesterday and it's bothering me. It's true, we do seem to have a 'closed' culture to death in the UK. I don't know that it was always so; I've seen films and documentaries about the preservation of memories (particularly of children) and I can understand that completely. A poster further up the thread mentioned that it would be a good idea to have a 'Day of the Dead'; a proper remembrance and celebration of loved ones not with us now and I completely agree with that. We have "All Souls' Day" but it's not the same kind of thing.

I have antipathy towards Facebook having seen it always as competitive attention-seeking, on every subject - but it just a public medium for communication when I really think about it. I don't see every post or every wall and it's clear that it's unfair to make a judgement based on the tiny number of walls I've seen. I'm sorry that I did that because it's caused pain to posters on this thread and my going on about 'being free to grieve as you like' doesn't then sit very well then with my clouded judgements about Facebook.

I've peeped into the 'Bereavement' board many times, particularly when a poster mentions something here on AIBU, and it never fails to make me sad for the posters there. I'm a 'blotting out' kind of person and for me, it enables me to function but I don't actually think it's healthy. Keeping a tight control of my emotions is something I've always done, perhaps because I'm afraid of what might happen if I didn't? I don't know.

Anyway, I've posted back to clarify really, to say that there isn't one post here - or on the bereavement board - describing what the posters and their families do to get through their grief and keep their loved ones 'alive', that doesn't resonate. I would do ANYTHING to have the time back, I can't, nobody can, so what is left to do? I've smiled - and wept - at some of the descriptions of what posters here do - and their strength in posting about it. If I didn't obviously have a pole up my bum about death, I'd embrace it too and stop being so stuffy.

I really am sorry for any offence that I caused with my posts,

Lyingwitch - I know it's not very mumsnet but may I offer you a ? What a heartfelt post. There's always loose ends and things not said. We just have to live on alongside that.

wow - op there are some things that should be left in your head and not actually said out loud, this is one of them

Very kind of you, NorthernLurker, gratefully received and reciprocated, thank you.

We have Cemetery Sunday once a year (thankfully now moved from November to June) where everyone who wants to goes to a loved ones grave on a particular Sunday. Its a religious thing - Bishop is there - says a few decades (dependent on the weather), of the Rosary, a few prayers, blesses the graves. We always went - from the age of 4/5 - both my parents Dads died very young and we have loads of relatives. It sounds really morbid but its not.

I go with my friend to her daughters grave and its so important to her, that her baby was here, that she has a name and a birthday, grandparents, siblings. Other posters have said it much better than me but my friends pain is so visceral that anything that gives her comfort can't be judged.