Will Cumulus become the standard in digital memorials?
I’m big on the concept of memorialization. My life is better because those relatives that came before me left a history of their time on earth for me to grasp onto. That history consists of their burial places marked with memorials at our local cemetery as well as photos and newspaper articles about who they were that has given me a greater sense of who I am?
And, as I look into the future I have tried to decide how future descendents of mine will learn about me via a memorialization process. I’m pretty certain that I’ll be buried at the same cemetery as my ancestors so that when looking at my memorial stone these future descendents (and anybody else) will see a name of someone who “lived”.
While that may be enough “memorialization” for me, there is a whole new generation of people in this world who are being brought up in what, for them, is an almost complete “digital world”. For those people there is no file cabinet of papers or old physical newspapers or tangible photos to go through. . . . . .this ever growing group of people live in a digital world.
It makes sense then, that their memorialization process will very likely be digital also. The question that we have in today’s world is “What will that look like?”
Architect Alex Josephson contemplated that question as he was sitting with his hospitalized father back in 2020. And, as this recent article from Fast Company points out, Josephson had questions about the legacy his father may leave. Here’s a quote from Josephson in that article, “I knew my father was more than just a date of birth and a date of potential death. And I think everybody could say the same about their loved ones.”
Josephson went on to contemplate the following according to that article, “Memorializing a person and capturing the essence of who they are should be much more than a line or two of data inscribed on a rock. (Josephson) started thinking of what else could be done, particularly in an age awash in digital media, to create a more representative memorial of a person.”
It was out of that thought process that the company Cumulus was born. . Here is what the article says of Cumulus, “It’s evolved into a collaborative digital memorial platform where more of the depth of a person’s life—in the form of photos, videos, audio, documents, and weblinks—can be collected and shared. Josephson sees it as a place where a person like his father could have a more comprehensive life story and memorial, and one that he could work on himself before he dies.”
Josephson explains Cumulus as such, “In a sense, it started with the physical monument being a limited medium for the message. My vision for Cumulus is it becomes the place where you curate that message, the digital assets that have become our formal existence on the earth outside of our relationships, and create a meaningful place for them.”
The company is recently coming out of Beta-mode and, according to the article, has signed up funeral home and cemetery operator Park Lawn Corporation as one of its first customers. Here’s part of, from the article, what Park Lawn Corporation executive Jay Dodds says of the idea of Cumulus, “The funeral and cemetery business is about legacy. It’s about keeping a memory or remembrance alive forever for a family. And as the trend moves more towards cremation, it somewhat takes the cemetery out of the picture because they don’t need to bury the full remains in the cemetery. . . . . I’ve been in this business for 40 years. What people don’t understand is once you have a loved one who dies, that doesn’t mean the relationship stops. You still have a relationship. Cumulus is a connectivity piece. And humans need that connectivity.”
Funeral Director Daily take: What is interesting about Cumulus is that while it is about the legacy that will be left as a memorial, the people that are most interested in creating these memories are living and in the ages of between 30 and 50. Here’s what the article says about that situation, “They’re the ones faced with mortality because their parents are either arranging their plans or they’ve had to deal with it on a surprise basis. And so the people who end up having to do the work are between that age bracket. . . . . This is also a generational group of people who have seen more and more of their lives recorded or documented in digital media, but who have few good options for collecting and curating it all.”
I’m not the most digital-savvy guy in the world, but I can see opportunity for Cumulus. I also see this type of memorial being fine-tuned as technology changes and advances. Reading the article gave me a much bigger perspective on differing ideas and possibilities for future memorialization that all funeral directors should be aware of.
That being said, there is a lot of people and money in “Digital Memorials” at this time. I think that no one company has it “figured out” yet, but the opportunity for the first company that “gets it right” is big and should provide a very big upside over the next two to three decades. . . . In my opinion, the idea of the “correct” style of digital memorials is a play for the long-haul of Death Care, not simply for next week.
Here is the website for Cumulus
More news from the world of Death Care:
- William T. Fraser and Son: How three generations of this family firm are changing funeral trends. The Press and Journal (United Kingdom)
- 5,000 year-old cemetery in Spain has twice as many females as males and nobody knows why. LiveScience
- Stark Memorial Funeral Home expands with 2nd crematory unit. Morning Journal News (OH)
- Meyers Funeral Home marks 100 year anniversary. The Versailles Republican (IN)
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