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Grieving families protest 'duplicitous' website that reposts death notices to sell flower deliveries

In page.Earlier this year, the parents of an Ontario child who died of cancer said they were “absolutely gutted” to see their son’s obituary used in this way.Similar complaints in Newfoundland led to suggestions from a lawyer that the practice of copying text from published obituaries violates intellectual property law, just as much as if Everhere had cut and pasted a literary short story.The site offers the chance to post free messages of condolence, and it advertises flower deliveries through Bloomstoday, a florist based in Virginia that coordinates with local flower delivery services.In the new Alberta case, Rick Laursen, who works in health and safety in the oil industry, moved into his parents’ house in Calgary recently to help when his father Erik, 83, was diagnosed with cancer. Erik’s wife and Rick’s mother Margaret, 92, has vascular related dementia, and would often ask about her husband. Rick would explain that he was very sick, but then she would forget and ask again. He found he was causing her fresh grief over and over again, multiple times a day.After consulting with her physician and an expert with the Alberta health system, he settled on a plan of telling her that Erik was tired and needed to rest. Rick recalled the doctor saying the “best you can do is tell her he’s not here right now and eventually she will stop asking … You are causing her more harm than good by making her live (with) something she cannot process.”She still does not know he died last week, and she did not attend the funeral on the weekend. She has never used a computer, so the online aspect did not bother Rick.He gave details to a local funeral home, but then a modified version appeared on Everhere.com: “Sadly, on July 4th, 2018, Erik Laursen of Calgary, Alberta left us for a better place. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one …”Much of the text had been copied word for word. Rick said they “completely stole from the real obituary.”But that opening quotation was not only newly written, it also managed to misinform mourners about the dead man’s wishes.“He would far sooner see the money go to a charity than see money spent on flowers for him,” Rick said of his father.Kevin Rodrigues, a bioethicist with the University Health Network in Toronto, s... http://www.thewhig.com/2018/07/10/grieving-families-protest-duplicitous-website-that-reposts-death-notices-to-sell-flower-deliveries