A couple from Co Antrim have launched interactive grave plaques to help celebrate life through grief.
About Them, a company based in Carrickfergus, are hoping their Forever Profiles will help families remember the personality and character of loved ones when they pass away.
The profiles operate through a QR code that is lasered into a copper plate with a graphic chosen by the family.
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This gives the freedom to upload information including text, videos, and images onto a server that can be accessed by scanning the code.
Stuart Penrose and his wife, Diane, first thought of the idea three years ago, but came up against the obstacle of many people not knowing how to use a QR code then. After the pandemic, however, things have changed as the codes are regularly used in everyday life.
Stuart, 56, said hearing stories behind the coronavirus statistics spurred them on to set up Forever Profiles.
"We were becoming immune to the numbers," he said.
"We started thinking things were improving as 2,500 people died, but that's 2,500 families devastated. But on local news you would get the stories behind those numbers, the people behind the stats.
"We thought this was the time to get the QR codes out there. The whole core of this is showing the person's whole personality, keeping it and holding it so your great-grandchildren can know who you were.
"Let's not post what you achieved academically or what you worked as, let's post when you partied, let's see you at your 21st or 30th birthday with all your family enjoying yourself."
Stuart and Diane believe the use of such technology will one day change the way we grieve, focusing on remembering the personality and traits of our loved ones as opposed to a regular headstone.
"A headstone gives you a start date, an end date and a name - it doesn't tell you anything about their character," Stuart continued.
"Once your direct relatives pass away, the memories and messages get diluted. But those memories and stories will be there to see forever with something like this.
"People get very awkward around death, but nine times out of ten people want you to talk about their loved one, they don't want to hide from it. This has been a great process for people to get together as a family and decide what photos, videos and writing to include.
"There's not one bit of sadness up there. There's no 'dearly missed', they're talking about their 40th birthday party, talking about someone's 90th birthday with a video of them with a cake and their grandchildren. That's what we want, these are the things you want to remember."
Another aspect of the Forever Profiles is a virtual bouquet, where the team will work with local charities to add a 'donate now' button on profiles to display a virtual bouquet with the donor's name.
After working as bespoke florists for over a decade and seeing the waste that decaying flowers can cause, they're hoping a virtual aspect like this will help remember special days more sustainably.
Stuart added: "Working as bespoke florists for over a decade, some of the money people spent on tributes was crazy. They're at a low point and they feel as though it helps.
"A funeral director once told me grief sells and he's right; the price of funerals, the price of headstones. I can see a time when headstones become a thing of the past, as we're struggling for space.
"We've costed this at around 38p a week, so it means anyone who wants this will be able to afford it."
All in all, Stuart and Diane are hoping their interactive plaques will help people grieve through remembering the best traits of their loved ones.
"We're Irish, we're known for our wakes and our partying, yet as soon as we go through those graveyard gates it's depressing, but why should it be?," Stuart said.
"A graveyard can be a place of reflection, but why can't it also be a celebration of life?"
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