(#5251) After their passing, unfriending both my parents from Facebook

  I suppose to some it may seem like I am cruel to unfriend my departed parents from my Facebook account. Both of them, Joanne and then William passed within the last 9 months. But for me it is all about letting them go. When I see their pages pop up because some other family member posts something on their pages it brings about a sense of morbidity to me. I may be unusual in that way because I have always thought that communing with the dead is a silent private matter not for public display. I also get that feeling again of utter loss that is like a gut punch and I can do without that feeling.  
     I loved both my parents and enjoyed being able to communicate with them occasionally on Facebook but they are no longer around to do that. Holding onto their pages is somewhat like pretending they are still here and I won't do that. As well some family members are posting as Mom and it is a bit too much for me. I get how others could see their relationships with my Mom and Dad and do differently than I but I won't be around to view it. My memories of my parents is what I keep in my mind and that is because certain things remind me of them and I can associate how they were in a context that is normal and welcoming.
     Defining who we are, to me, has not been about who we professed to be but how we lived within our normal natures of character and how those behaviors manifested themselves. Both my parents were good decent human beings who wanted the best for everyone. They did not become scrooge like or condescending to those who were less experienced or naive about the ways of the world in general. They practiced good values by being helpful and caring. That is what I remember about them and it was their greatest contribution to instilling in me a sense of duty and responsibility to our human being race and those other beings under our stewardship.