When someone you love loses someone they love, the bonds of family, friends, and community become even more apparent. We watch as the people we love struggle under the weight of loss and grief. And the question often arises that asks, “What can we do?”

The answer isn’t often clear. We cannot solve grief. In fact, it’s not something to be solved at all. It’s a natural part of loving and losing someone dear to us. Often, there isn’t much that can be done to lighten the weight of loss. The most we can do is be there for the person we love.

Sometimes, the best we can do is offer a kind word. Offering condolences and letting someone know that you’re there for them can create a bright light even when it seems like all they can see is darkness.

But where should you leave a condolence message? In today’s digital world, the news of someone’s passing may be spread throughout many different locations, like Facebook posts or community message boards. You may be inclined to write your condolences on the first post you see. Let’s get into why there’s a better option.

The Challenges of Finding Obituaries in the Digital Age

It used to be that people primarily learned about the passing of a community member through their local newspaper. While obituaries in newspapers still do occur, it’s much more common for information about someone’s passing and their funeral services to be shared on social media, message boards, and websites dedicated to obituaries.

When you find such a post online, your first reaction might be to leave your condolences in a comment, but there’s a better way. If messages are scattered across the internet, the family is likely to miss some comments. In some cases, an obituary might be shared on a website that the family isn’t even aware of, all but guaranteeing that they’ll never see the condolences left on that site.

Someone’s passing doesn’t just directly affect the decedent's family, either. We touch so many lives throughout our own lifetime. You never know who is going to miss you when you’re gone. Condolences don’t just provide comfort to the immediate family. Entire communities take comfort in reading those messages, whether they’re simply words of support or are filled with memories of the lives the decedent touched.

Leave Condolences on the Funeral Home Website

While we’re not discouraging anyone from leaving condolences on any platform, including social media, we strongly recommend that, if you can, you leave it on the funeral home website so there’s one central location for them to see it. If you want to reach all of the people navigating a new world of grief, you should share your condolences in a place where those who loved the decedent know to look.

Most often, when someone is working with a funeral home and posts about their loved one’s passing on Facebook, message boards, or other websites, they’ll share the link to a page on the funeral home’s website. On this page, you’ll find information about the services, the decedent’s obituary, and how to pay your respects.

This page also often functions as a central hub for condolences, where everyone who loved the decedent or who loves someone the decedent loved can leave a thoughtful word and a statement of support. This section of the funeral home’s obituary page is sometimes called a tribute wall or a guestbook. Like an in-person guestbook at a funeral, it’s something that the family of the decedent can always look back on to remember and take comfort in how loved their loved one was.

Having a central hub on the funeral home’s website ultimately benefits everyone. It becomes a primary location for condolences. Instead of having hundreds of messages spread across dozens of social media posts, those hundreds of messages will be in one place, an ever-growing testament to the decedent’s life. But clicking out to the funeral home’s website rather than simply writing a comment is also helpful for you as someone who loved the decedent. If you want to attend the funeral, the information for the services will be available to you. But you’ll also find that this page can help you go further in paying your respects.

You can order flowers directly through the funeral home’s website, which is a thoughtful touch when sharing your condolences. If you’d like to order flowers for the service, placing an order through the funeral home website alleviates your stress because you don’t have to worry about when it’s being delivered and where. The funeral home will ensure that your flowers end up where they need to go and will handle it for you.

If the person who passed has a service, you’ll find that offering condolences there also helps both you and the people you’re coming out to support. Services bring people together and allow them to provide one another with comfort and care. Coming to a funeral service gives the family of the decedent a chance to see just how many people loved their loved one.

But whether you attend the service or not, writing a condolence message is still an impactful way of telling someone they are loved and supported during their time of grief. Locate the decedent’s obituary page on their funeral home website to share your message and contribute to the creation of something their loved ones can always turn to when they need an encouraging word.

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