Is it odd to have dead people still on your Facebook friends?

[GingerNutMe]

So I have a couple of friends/family members that have sadly passed away but never taken them off my friendship list on Facebook. Is this normal, is it reasonable?

Whilst family can apply to Facebook for a profile to be closed I get the impression that it is laborious and often doesn't happen. I believe Facebook have a process where you can nominate someone on your behalf to deal with it so assume this is the better way but how many people do?

Just feels wrong for me to 'unfriend' these people but also feels strange to have dead peoples profiles appear.

Thoughts on a postcard ..........................

I don't think it's odd, coincidentally I was looking at a friend's page last night, he took his own life 11 years ago this week. Various of my friends have left comments on his page for birthdays and the anniversary of his death.

My best friend died. I was really upset when her dh took her Facebook profile down. Just wish I’d thought to save it all.

I think it's more odd to delete them.

I have my late dp, his best friend & my best friend still on my FB, I'm the only person who knows my late dp's password for his profile so I go on & delete any rubbish & fake profiles from it, I also post myself on anniversaries or his birthday.

My aunt is still a FB friend. Some days it’s hard to see memories, other days it’s really nice. It feels harder when other people share memories and it pops up in my feed for some reason.

My aunt’s daughter was really young when her mum died and I let her look through the photos her mum had posted before she died (most were of my cousin) and it meant a lot to my cousin to see her mum’s words about her. When she gets a bit older, I’ll let her read her status updates if she wants but we just need to have that chat about her sharing some of her cancer stuff on there so it might be difficult to read, she can make the decision if she wants to take the bad bits to read what her mum was up to.

Casilero I still have my late dp's number, both my friend's & my parents contact still says mum & dad even though my dad died 4 years ago, it is the last way of them still being on earth & I can't bring myself to delete them. I still ring dp's number to listen to his answerphone message as it is the only recording of him speaking I still have.

I had to unfriend a not-very-close friend after they passed because every birthday, anniversary of their death, xmas, any work related 'celebration' they were tagged in or a comment was left for them and I really didn't enjoy seeing all the 'happy birthday wishes'. That was quite strange 😔

I can well imagine.

I have lost a really dear friend suddenly and I sometimes go into our long WhatsApp chat to remember her.

It comforts me, makes me laugh and devastates me all over again, every time.

When her family obviously closed her account and her number had been moved on, it inexplicable upset me a lot.

I took look at her FB account, full of gorgeous photos and so many happy times in her life.

I would hate for it to be deleted.

For those who keep numbers in your phone - be very careful with WhatsApp.

my late friend’s number was reallocated after a set amount of time and the new person had their photo available to all so the contact photo changed. It upset quite a few people.

This

I sadly have too many dead people. But I haven't removed them because their families tend to celebrate their birthdays and anniversaries of their deaths. Those closest to me I'd remember anyway but others it's good to have the reminder to send wishes to their loved ones

My brother deactivated my dad's account - I really wish he hadn't. It was before the 'remembering' function. I have a few people on mine who have passed away - I like it when their comments or posts pop up in my memories.

I think it depends. I have known a couple of people who died and a relative or close friend took over their page (so it became a tribute for the sympathy messages at the time and then sometimes a brief birthday/anniversary message for people to keep remembering them).

If no-one took over the page and it didn’t have special photos or messages you wanted to keep, there would be nothing at all wrong in unfriending the pages.

One of my Facebook friends sadly died of cancer several years ago. I wasn't friends with his wife on Facebook but about once a year she puts an update about how their children are doing and tags him, so I then see those posts.

It's actually very easy to either memorialise or have a FB account deleted IF you have a copy of the Death Certificate and you are a close family member/Executor. www.facebook.com/help/1111566045566400 You can also name a legacy contact before you die so that they can do certain things with your account

I memorialised my Late Mother's account when she passed in the summer and it was actioned within minutes. Literally. Although as I was also a legacy contact on her account, that may have helped things, I don't know. Family members did not want the account deleted so that they could still look back at photos and comments - but memorialising it means reminders won't be sent out about birthdays etc and the front page says 'remembering (name)' so others who may not have heard immediately know

As a friend it isn't odd to keep the person on your friends list as it is nice to look back at previous posts.