Second Life has been around for a few years now and as time goes by there is one aspect of it that shares its sadness with the real world.  The real life death of an avatar, leaving a great void for the avatars left behind.   Second Life is all about people interacting with each other, not a game as such, just a community of people joining other people in creating a society of friends, families, lovers and colleagues.  Getting as close, or as distant, from the other avatars as each individual wishes.   You will have little fun in Second Life if you don't form friendships, as it can be a lonely place without the companionship of other people. 

I had heard of at least three deaths over the past few months and witnessed the distress of the friends left ‘in world'.    I had recently travelled to Tribute Island (Region Tribute Island) to look around and had found a memorial to British Armed Forces killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, likewise I found a memorial to people killed in the World Trade Centre (Region World Trade Centre 11, 77, 175).  Both superb sites and a place real life relatives can visit, via Second Life, and leave candles and flowers, which is comforting if they cannot make the trip to a real life memorial garden.  

Whilst looking at these memorials I came across a sim owned by avatar Mike Burleigh, who has opened up a memorial garden for all those people who have lost their friends in Second Life (Remembering our Friends Memorial, Region Cassandra, 146, 214, 84).   It's a beautiful place, very serene and restful.  He has plaques on the walls inscribed with the virtual names of the deceased with tribute messages.  Mike told me that he had wanted to do this for some time, but it was the loss of someone he knew in Second Life that made him actually go ahead with the memorial garden.  Mike added that eventually he hopes to get a grief councillor on board to help people deal with their loss.

Mike makes the plaques and, along with Polly Cassidy, who makes the textures, he supplies them free of charge.  He tells me that all the people have to do is to send him a notecard with the deceased's name on, plus a few nice words, and he does the rest.

Mike pays for the running of the sim himself, though he says donations are welcome.

I suggested it may be a good idea to keep records of deceased avatars so that others, who have lost track of their friends in Second Life, could check to see if that person has died.  Some people just leave Second Life without an explanation, and this is just as stressful for those left behind, not knowing just what has happened to them.

Mike said that there will be a website linked to the memorial garden for this purpose.

Mike has been a builder, as well as owning clubs and stores in the virtual world before he started this project, and says that this has been the most fulfilling.  He has vowed to keep the site going, or pass it on to someone else eventually, who will do the same.

Mike has a candlelit vigil every Saturday at 7pm (Second Life time) at the memorial garden, which gives people the opportunity to pay their respects.   Mike is giving his time and money to this very worthy cause.  As we all will, at one time or another, either lose a friend, or know someone else who has suffered such sorrow in Second Life, the memorial garden will prove a comfort for people who wish to remember their virtual friends.