Modern memento

[mme_hardy]

I signed into Yahoo Chat today for the first time in years. In my contacts list was the name of a much-admired friend who died last month. I can't bear to delete that name; it would be like deleting her. But the name is a throbbing tooth every time I glance over it.

Comments

[minim_calibre]

LinkedIn suggested I go endorse her for something.

[mme_hardy]

Oh, God.

[minim_calibre]

Yeah, with picture and everything. I winced.

[nestra]

I didn't think to look, because I hardly use it any more, but she's still on my AIM.

[mme_hardy]

You're still on my Yahoo chat! Do you even use that?

[nestra]

Nope. Mostly, I text shrift during the day to whine about being bored.

[mme_hardy]

I used to Google chat with a couple of friends, but then they made you have a Google+ account to use it and you had to install G+ on your iPad. :(

[ckd]

The Hangouts standalone app for iOS might work. Not sure if it's requiring a G+ account or not at this point, though things have tended to shift back toward the latter since, oh, last April or thereabouts IIRC.

[athenais]

I can't take a couple friends out of my phone's address book for the same reason and yet it pierces me when I see them listed. as if I could just call them.

[flea]

The oldest emails in my Gmail inbox (ported from Yahoo) are from my grandmother and my aunt, who both died in 2004.

I google chat with my sister and husband; I don't have a smartphone and couldn't safely carry one around at work anyway (without getting some kind of dorky holster - theft risk) but I am always on a computer, so it works for me. mr. flea has something installed on his iPhone to make it work.

[sara]

We had this with my late mother-in-law on Facebook. There, at least, there is something that the executor can do to convert it into a "memorial" account, so you can still tag the person but it stops suggesting that you invite them to parties and so on.

[oracne]

A different person, who died a few months ago, is still in my contacts all over the place. I can't bear to delete, either.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, I know the feeling. I still have dead people on my FB and here. FB's gotten better about reminding me when it's their birthday/I haven't talked to them in awhile, but it's still painful.

[madrobins]

Oh, honey. Hugs.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

*hugs*