Grieving relatives are leaving memorials to their lost loved ones electronically – on the Internet. Hot on the heels of the Virtual Pet Cemetery (at www.lavamind.com/pet.html) comes an electronic Virtual Memorial Garden for people, care of the computing science department at Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear. The pioneer of the service, Dr Lindsay Marshall, said 300 people from all over the world had so far left messages. People really open their hearts and some of the entries are so sad. It seems to act as a great catharsis for people, he said. Marshall hopes eventually to create a three-dimensional background for the messages, which would show catacombs or pyramids.
