Funerals going high-tech - 2006-06-28 12:35 AM
Funerals going high-tech
- Family and friends of the recently departed can now view a live Web broadcast of the funeral services from the comfort of their own home or office. The service began last week on Long Island.
The Star of David Memorial Chapel in West Babylon is offering the free service, plus complimentary DVD recordings, to any of its customers as a way of accommodating the immobile or out-of-town mourner.
Anyone wanting to watch a streaming video of the service can simply log onto the Star of David's Web site and click on "View a Funeral."
Randy McCullough, spokesman for the New York State Funeral Directors Association in Albany, said he was not aware of any other funeral homes in the state that broadcast their funerals online.
But he thinks the idea will surely catch on.
In the meantime, independent Web specialists, like Funeralcast and Memorialcast, can be hired to attend a wake or funeral and transmit it over the Internet.
Gloria Lindell, 77, and her husband, Gerry, 78, have already signed up for the service when their time is up.
"I think it's one of the greatest ideas," said Lindell, who six years ago moved with her husband from Oceanside, L.I., to the Indian Spring retirement home in Boynton Beach, Fla.
The retired pharmaceutical sales rep and her husband, a former CEO of a securities firm, both plan to be buried on Long Island and have agreed to have Star of David beam their funerals into cyberspace.
"I have loads of friends in Florida," Lindell said. "When we're put to rest up there [in New York], they wouldn't be able to see the funeral. It's hard and expensive to travel."
She just hopes she doesn't have to take advantage of the new technology for many years.