Memorialise or close my late sister's social media accounts?

[silenceinthemind]

What have others done with loved one's social media accounts after they have died? My sister died suddennly18 months ago in her forties and was very active on Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram etc.

I ah her next of kin and executor of the will, as well as guardian of her young children. Up to now I have been avoiding taking any action on her accounts but now feel able to do so. I am finding it distressing now seeing her profile come up and I think it feels wrong now as some time has passed, particularly on LinkedIn where she had an active professional account at the time of her unexpected death.

I seem to have the choice to either Memorialize or Close accounts, but can't deide which. On the one hand, Closing/deleting her precence feels a bit sad, erasing her existance. But on the other hand, seeing her profile could become distressing for people, but at least memorialized puts a final close on it. But I worry about her children who are early teens but will no doubt be on Insta, Facebook and then LinkedIn when they get to Uni etc, if not before, and whetehr they will find it distressing to be able to search and find memorialized accounts.

What have people found is the best way to deal with these accounts?

I am so very sorry about your sister, my friend closed her mums Facebook she had passwords deleted photographs took some screen shots.of posts. and then deleted them.

My friend didn't want the account hacked by scammers.

Thankyou. I don't have passwords unfortunatley so would lose all content.

So sorry for your loss and what an amazing person you are being guardian to your sister's children. LinkedIn I would definitely just close. Maybe download her CV if you want for her kids if they want that info as they grow older? Other more personal accounts it may be nice to memorialize, her kids may love to learn more about their Mum and enjoy seeing her photos as they grow up.

I'm sorry for your loss, I have recently lost my sister in similar circumstances.

We are going to memorialize them, because it is a link for her children, her words and random thoughts - they are too young to really remember her so to delete makes it feel like we are deleting a connection to her.

My sister didn't have LinkedIn so I don't know about that.

I know my teenage children don't use FB at all, and I would imagine the next generation won't use Instagram as by then it will be for the 'oldies' so her children may only see it if they go looking iyswim.

So sorry for your loss.

As someone who lost their mum when I was young, I’d give anything now to see her fb account (she died before FB was invented though). As I’ve grown up I’ve had so many unanswered questions and I think something like this would be a wonderful opportunity to have some questions answered. Are there photos she’s put on of her and the kids? Days out?

There’s no right and wrong here, though, I think it’s one for your gut.

Memorialise what you can, it stops scammers from hijacking them. Also change all the passwords and put two factor on them. If you choose later you can close them then.

Thank you all, it is so helpful to hear other's perspectives.

Condolences. I would memorialise the accounts. You might regret it if you closed them all.

I'd close them if you don't have passwords to take photos etc. I'd definitely close LinkedIn because that a professional account and wouldn't have anything about her kids on it just CV and jobs she had.

I chose to memorialise. Once you close it, it's gone for good. There will be things in there that have the potential to be a great comfort to you and others. I'm glad I didn't throw those away.

I'm very sorry for your loss, I don't have personal experience but a DFriend had to make this choice about her mums profile and chose to delete it and really regretted it (still does) she was quite a heavy social media user and had YEARS of content and therefor memories.

I would memorialise them, because the content should be available to her DC. You clearly have mixed feelings, but IMO the content is part of their inheritance from her and I think they should get to see it. LinkedIn is a bit different, because that's a work networking site, so maybe download that and then close it, but FB, Insta, etc, I would memorialise and let her kids have that link to her.

So sorry to read of your sister, what a tragedy. I think I’d memorialise the social media ones for her children, and for you of course, they are lovely to look back on. However, I’d take steps to have LinkedIn removed and perhaps screenshot anything on there you’d like to save. I do recall seeing a service where you can have all social media stuff put into a book and I think you can download FB content but you’d need to check. I hope you can find a way forward with it 💐

Thank you all. You've really helped me come to a decision on this. I've requested for the linkedin profile to be closed/deleted, after downloading a pdf of her profile for her kids in case they want to see where she worked etc. And I'm going to memorilise the rest. Things wont always be this painful, for adults and tge children, and you're right, they might want to see photos etc later.