Always thinking of ways to make the world a better place, YourLifeChoices’ 91-year-old columnist Peter Leith has had a vision about how cemeteries could work better.
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Population growth, the ‘urban sprawl’ and the huge expansion of open-cut mines of various types are eating up arable land and making metropolitan land ever more scarce and prices ever more inflated.
We can no longer afford to waste large areas of land on the graves and tombstones of loved ones, the long dead and the long forgotten.
What is the answer? Cyber technology and virtual reality, of course.
We already have ancestry sites, internet dating sites, online birthday and anniversary cards, why not our very own online ‘Garden of Remembrance’?
A one-off ‘entrance fee’ would cover the creation of a permanent, pictorial record of a non-existent tombstone and memorial message of your very own choosing.
Each year, for a small annual fee, on the anniversary of the death of our loved ones, we would automatically receive a pictorial reminder showing the tomb of our dear departed. The small annual fee ensures that the flowers pictured on the tombstone are changed each year.
Instead of trying to organise visits to mum’s grave (the traffic gets worse every year), we could just pop our name into ‘RIP.com’ on our smartphone and follow the prompts.
And think of all the high-rise, luxury apartments that could be built on the land we waste today on cemeteries. Or the parks we could create.
Do you have a story or an observation for Peter? Send it to [email protected] and put ‘Sunday’ in the subject line.
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Related articles:
https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/sleeping-rough-and-an-act-of-kindness
http://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/the-community-hall
https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/health/your-health/when-dignity-comes-second
