Looking Back
My father died in 1994. He had spent his career as a NASA scientist, but far more important to me was the kind of man he was. He was a wonderful father, and after he died I found myself wondering how I might honor his life.
By then I had been immersed in cross-cultural grief research for several years. Again and again, I had seen examples of men honoring those they loved through meaningful action. I knew I wanted to do something rather than simply remember.
Then it came to me.
Build a website for grieving people.
I smiled as soon as the idea arrived because I knew my father would have loved it.
During his final years at NASA, he worked in a program called Technology Transfer, whose mission was to find practical ways to apply NASA’s scientific advances to everyday life. He believed technology should improve people’s lives.
Creating a website for grieving people felt like a continuation of that spirit. It would use a new technology to help people in pain.
In 1995, Web Healing was born. It became one of the earliest grief websites on the Internet and, much to my surprise, it grew rapidly. Over the years it has helped countless grieving people around the world. Social media eventually reduced its traffic, but it continues to serve people to this day.
Here’s the interesting part.
Almost no one knew that I built it in honor of my father.
Even though I dedicated the site to him, most visitors never saw the dedication. They simply saw a grief website.
The action was visible.
The grief behind it was not.