Lost Lore....

[mdehners]

A point I've made before was brought up this week with the discovery of the death of a well-respected member of the on-line Heathen community. The reason the community found out was after his death the family couldn't get into his computer...they didn't have the password(s)and contacted those in his phonebook and snailmail.
I myself have a decade + void in my own journals. I still have the majority of those before computers but everything before cd-rom is lost because I no longer have a way to read them.
It's not just Spirituality that's being lost. There will be no modern version of "Letters from the Civil War" and such. 'Course, considering the writing quality of the average person(not even including that much now is texting format;>), ther's not much quality being lost anyway....
Truth,
Patrick Thomas Duffy

Comments

[arlie]

It depends on the person, and how prepared they are. Leaving your affairs in order includes more than just telling your family where to find your will, and what investments you have. Now it probably includes telling them where to find your password database, and the password to it. (Which reminds me, I should (a) make that will and (b) make that info available to appropriate people).

Yes, but

[weofodthignen]

It actually fits the classic definition of SNAFU :-( He sent me a very hurried e-mail - so hurried he only sent it to me - saying he was being carted off to the hospital. Then silence. We tried calling teh hospital and got denials, then the runaround. The denials probably because the person who called didn't use his full formal name but abbreviated. The runaround because of privacy concerns - family had to give the go-ahead. Then more silence and more denials. Finally I got a response to a letter that literally came through the slit in the door while they were clearing the place. They appear to have sent letters to others at the same time. Who knows who they would have contacted if I hadn't written, or if they hadn't actually been there when my letter was delivered, but these are actually the same issues of will the hospital grant communication with friends or give them info, how much the family knows, can they find stuff, and what has the person told the family that we have always faced. Thankfully, his writing was overwhelmingly for Fire and Ice and that will survive. What he wrote on Ealdriht lists and in their Welcome Packet is of course gone like all the other good stuff there, including everything on the forum that was lost when Swain simply closed it down. But part of the tragedy in this case is that he wrote so little. Another part is that I'm sure he had many online friends who haven't been reached with the news. And . . . we weren't able to reach him to say goodbye :-(

Noil suggests a runestone and I know where I can have one made. But where to put it where it won't be removed by equally well-meaning officialdom ...

M

[heethen_crone]

Our viking group is in the process of going non profit and we've decided that when we get our land, there will be space available for such memorials. No one knows where Harbard was laid to rest either, or where his ashes are.
I did stick all my stuff in my safe deposit box, one child knows where the keys are and two have permission to get into the box. After dealing with a friend's issues in setting up a trust, etc. am in the process of setting up an irrevocable trust for the bit of property I have, also a Power of Attorney, both medical and durable, and a will. You have no idea, unless you've had to deal with this, what all is involved and how long it can take. Crazy. I also have contact information for personal friends, both on line and IRL not stored on my hard drive. Passwords are available for the one that knows where to look. I'm getting old. Need to do this.

[mdehners]

Sadly, thanks to the aids epidemic I learned...the hard way. Luckly for us my family loves Chuck and his...is DEAD(they were abusive and Chuck's head injury was done BY a relative that didn't want no Homos in the family). I did, however have to get the rest of the family on my side to gang up on my Mom for me to be Cremated. While she hasn't been to church since the 70's she still beleives no body, no afterlife.
As for my computer, my brother knows mine, all 4 passwords:>. He's the one that's going to be a pain when he Passes because he does such complicated passwords that HE can't remember them and carries them in a flashdrive around his neck....
Cheers,
Pat