A couple of people who were well known here have died recently.
Maybe this is a good time to raise this question. Some message boards might ask members for donations for flowers at a member's funeral/memorial service (or to a charity in the person's memory), or they might even have a fund set up for that purpose.
We've never done either of those here so far as I know. Should we think about it?
My own opinion is that we shouldn't. It may seem harsh but some here don't have funds to spare. Asking people for money they don't have just makes them feel inadequate, and they may already be feeling slammed by MS.
Also, not everyone would want it known at a memorial service/funeral that they were members of an MS support board but it might become known when guests start reading the cards that are usually on display.
I'm strongly in favor of letting each person here decide whether or not to make an individual contribution--donation, flowers, written tribute on a page provided by a funeral home, personal note to the bereaved family.
I'd like to see this board be free of requests for funds from members. MS takes a devastating economic toll, a fact that is often neglected on support boards, which tend to concentrate on symptoms and treatments and medical care problems as well as emotional ramifications of MS. People hesitate to discuss their personal finances on a message board for understandable reasons, but I've been reading posts long enough to realize that those finances are sometimes very grim.
Asking people for contributions on behalf of any member who has had a severe illness or died is a lovely gesture but I don't think it's appropriate for this board.
What's your opinion? I'd really like to know even though my opinion is probably not going to change in this instance.
Maybe this is a good time to raise this question. Some message boards might ask members for donations for flowers at a member's funeral/memorial service (or to a charity in the person's memory), or they might even have a fund set up for that purpose.
We've never done either of those here so far as I know. Should we think about it?
My own opinion is that we shouldn't. It may seem harsh but some here don't have funds to spare. Asking people for money they don't have just makes them feel inadequate, and they may already be feeling slammed by MS.
Also, not everyone would want it known at a memorial service/funeral that they were members of an MS support board but it might become known when guests start reading the cards that are usually on display.
I'm strongly in favor of letting each person here decide whether or not to make an individual contribution--donation, flowers, written tribute on a page provided by a funeral home, personal note to the bereaved family.
I'd like to see this board be free of requests for funds from members. MS takes a devastating economic toll, a fact that is often neglected on support boards, which tend to concentrate on symptoms and treatments and medical care problems as well as emotional ramifications of MS. People hesitate to discuss their personal finances on a message board for understandable reasons, but I've been reading posts long enough to realize that those finances are sometimes very grim.
Asking people for contributions on behalf of any member who has had a severe illness or died is a lovely gesture but I don't think it's appropriate for this board.
What's your opinion? I'd really like to know even though my opinion is probably not going to change in this instance.
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