“How would you feel about Daddy and me turning into ghostbots?” I asked this peculiar question to my two children after reading about “grief tech,” the latest wonder child of artificial intelligence that allows the living to remain digitally connected to the dead through “ghostbots.” I explained to our children that they could feed our Read more
Carrie Rowell still misses the 7 a.m. phone calls from her father, who died six years ago. He would use her nickname, “Toots,” or ask, “Hey, babe, how’s your morning going?” “I would give anything to hear that again,” Rowell said. But interacting with a version of a departed loved one is now more accessible Read more
When Mary-Anne Paterson lost her mother, Anne, to breast cancer, she knew she wanted to make something in her memory. Now she is creating glass jewellery from her mother’s ashes. Read more
Three-year-old Crew Long has been gone a little more than a year and a half. But his mom still talks to him. Sometimes Mandy Long speaks to her son, who died on Sept. 18, 2017, through prayer or in her journal. Other times she posts notes to her son on her family’s Facebook group page, Read more
Like all expectant parents, Danielle and Kyle Jenkins had plenty to organise before the arrival of their baby boy. They chose the name Aryton after Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna to reflect both Kyle’s mad love for the sport and Danielle’s Brazilian heritage. They had a baby shower, filled drawers with baby clothes, decorated Read more
In January, St Peter’s College student Robbie Taylor, died after the car he was travelling in crashed into a tree on Ian McKinnon Drive, in Eden Terrace. Now, some Peter’s College students make film to honour friend. Three of his closest friends, James Sutherland-Cameron, Oliver van Lent and Ned Drumm, have spent a month putting Read more
The family of Blessie Gotingco began the novena on May 15, timing it so that the final day of prayer would fall last Sunday, the one-year anniversary of Blessie’s death. A man, who has name suppression, was convicted of Gotingco’s rape and murder at the High Court in Auckland on Friday. Gotingco went missing on Read more
There has been a massive outpouring of grief for Australian batting star Phil Hughes, who died having never regained consciousness after being hit on the top of the neck by a bouncer during an interstate game last Tuesday. The youth and promise of the cricketing star, who was by all accounts an extremely likeable young Read more
Paris Jackson, the 15-year-old daughter of the late singer Michael Jackson, cut her wrists and swallowed a bottle of pills June 6. As she recovers, one in six high school students will seriously consider ending their lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death for Read more
I’m dealing with the death of my father the way I deal with most things: by thinking, and processing those thoughts through writing, fingers to keyboard. Given my philosophical bent, these thoughts wander from his particular death to mortality in general. That might strike you as cold, excessively rational, analytic. But the only rule about Read more