Technology changes how we mourn

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - From virtual memorials to live streams on the internet - technology is changing the way people mourn the loss of a loved one.

Living too far away to attend a funeral may soon be a thing of the past, and choosing arrangements now go further than burial or cremation. When a loved one dies, grief is grief. And loss is loss. But as media and technology change, so do the ways in which people mourn.

>> See a photo gallery of the some of the unique funeral trends showing up around the country

"I think what technology has done is let people do the same thing different ways," says Anthony Amigone, Jr. of Amigone Funeral Home.

If you've been to a funeral or wake in the last few years, in addition to photo boards, you've likely seen video slideshow tributes. They give family members from anywhere a chance to share photos of the loved one who died.

"And it becomes a keepsake for everyone because now you're sharing all those videos through the memorial video," Amigone says.

Amigone embraces new changes in the industry which help people grieve. On their website they post an obituary along with wake and funeral information. There's also an online guestbook, which gives grieving friends and family unlimited space to offer condolences, reflect and share memories anywhere in the world.

"It's a place where people find comfort in what is read there," he says.

Facebook pages serve as makeshift online memorials when someone dies. Getzville soldier Billy Wilson was killed in Afghanistan in March. But to this day, friends and family leave messages and photos as an outlet for their grief.

The technology has changed some actual funerals as well. It can be hard for everyone to make it to the service. But at St. Gregory the Great Church, everything is live-streamed on the internet. That means friends and family at home can watch a funeral live, right at their computer.

"I think it's a great avenue we have here at St. Gregory the Great to allow people to experience the presence of family and friends praying and supporting each other," says Father Sebastian Pierro.

Around the country other new trends are emerging. "Green funerals," in which caskets are biodegradable, are more common among the eco-conscious.

There is a natural cemetery near Ithaca in which trees, shrubs, or flat, natural fieldstones are used as grave markers.

A company in Georgia offers a service where families can bring cremated ashes and mix them with environmentally-friendly concrete into a reef ball and put the ball into the ocean to replenish the natural reef formation.

And in South Carolina, grieving families can step aside at the funeral home and reflect over a cup of coffee at the newly attached Starbucks.

Many of the changes involve making grieving families comfortable and personalizing the mourning as much as they can to reflect the person they lost.

"Because we find it to be cathartic. And helpful," Amigone says.

But sometimes what's old is new again. Amigone says their most popular new offering is a candle with the deceased's photo printed on it.

You won't be having coffee in a funeral home Starbucks in western New York anytime soon. It's illegal in the state to serve food or drinks at funeral homes.