Interactive headstones gaining popularity

There is a new high tech option for families hoping to memorialize their loved ones.

There can be life after death through social media. For about $75, customers can install a QR (Quick Response) code on the headstones of their loved ones. It allows access to an online tribute for the deceased right in the cemetery through your smart phone.

“Of the two or three that I have seen, one of them linked back to the funeral home’s website. The other led to the newspaper obituary for the deceased. In the third example, the people really took it on as a project and made an entire memorial website that they linked to their QR code,” said Drew Gray of Gray’s Funeral Chapel in Prince Albert.

Ron Johnson of Remco Memorials said there has been a lot of interest from customers since they introduced the option in Canada about a year ago. “They welcome the idea. They are just totally amazed that it is even available,” said Johnson.

Roy Klein of Prince Albert put a QR code on his mother’s monument in Memorial Gardens Cemetery last fall.

“If someone wants to look up information about my mother years down the road, they can find that information without having to go searching. Plus, everybody has a cell phone now,” Klein said.

However, Gray said the technology isn’t for everyone. “Some may feel it is more information than they need to give out. Monuments as a rule have a name and date and an epitaph to give characterization to the person, but this is taking it to the next level.”

The QR codes are guaranteed for 10 years fulfilling the desire to keep the memories of loved ones alive for future generations.