Lantern and the Yellow Heart

Lantern, a platform that helps bereaved people commemorate their loved ones, has worked with families affected by the coronavirus pandemic to launch a new "Yellow Hearts" online memorial service. With such an enormous death toll due to Covid-19, the initiative's aim is to ensure that each person who lost their life is remembered as a name, not a number.

Set up by Edinburgh-based web designer Mark Pryde, the Lantern project's online platform enables people to create memorials on an interactive map. Users of the platform are encouraged to pick a location on the map and dedicate it to a loved one by writing a short message about a memory that connects them, and uploading a photograph. The memorial is depicted as a Lantern symbol on the chosen location. Through the new association with Covid-19 Bereaved Families, whose members use the Yellow Heart as a symbol of the experience that unites them, the project will offer families bereaved by coronavirus the opportunity to leave a Yellow Heart symbol on the map when they make a memorial, rather than the Lantern.

A place for names not numbers

Together the yellow hearts will signify this vast group of people who have been bereaved because of Covid 19.

Individually each yellow heart signifies a unique memory created with the person who has died.

Visit the map

Mark said: "After launching Lantern late last year, we began to talk to Covid-19 Bereaved Families about what Lantern could do to help. "The impact that the pandemic has had on individuals and families bereaved from Covid-19 is hard to understate. Not only have they had a loved one die from the virus, they have been reminded of the cause of this on a daily basis. "They have been left in many cases alone and isolated, removed from the mechanisms and spaces for grief that typically exist to provide comfort for the bereaved, with funeral attendance limited and wakes unable to be held.

"In many ways, the pandemic has left us desensitised to the numbers of deaths that have occurred. Lantern's Yellow Hearts initiative hopes to help Covid-19 Bereaved Families ensure that their loved ones are remembered as a name and a memory, not just a number. "Even out-with the pandemic, knowing 600,000 people die on average each year tells us little about the impact each one of these deaths had on the people left behind. "Ultimately, Lantern is a place for individuals to highlight and acknowledge memories made with people who have died. Each Lantern or Yellow Heart placed represents a memory that remains.

Each Lantern or Yellow Heart represents the profound effect those that those who are no longer with us had on our lives. "In time, we will further develop the platform to enable users to link memories of the same person together and further add to the memories they have created as the years pass.”

Please contact Mark Pryde of the Lantern Project if you require further information or would like to arrange an interview.
Phone: 07305 745 060
Email: mark@mylantern.org.uk
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice: Link
Yellow Hearts to Remember- Covid 19 Facebook Page: Link

What is Lantern?

Lantern is an online platform that enables people to create online memorials on our interactive ‘map of memories’. Visitors to the platform are encouraged to pick a location on the map, dedicate it, write a short memory and upload a photograph. This will then be depicted with a Lantern or yellow heart on the chosen location as you can see on our site.

This project began in late 2019, when we did not know that we were on the cusp of a global health crisis. Tragically during the last 12 months over 130,000 people have died due to COVID19 in the UK and 3.3 million deaths world wide. Upon launching the platform Lantern began to talk to the families bereaved due to COVID19 and we updated the platform to include the yellow heart.

Lockdown has resulted in a difficult year for all of us, but the impact that the pandemic has had on individuals and families bereaved from COVID 19 is hard to underestimate. Not only have they had a love one die from the virus, they have been reminded of the cause of this on a daily basis. They have been left in many cases alone and isolated, removed from the mechanisms and spaces for grief that typically exist to provide comfort for the bereaved with funeral attendance limited and wakes unable to be held.

Lantern - Fund the next phase

Lantern has so far been entirely funded by goodwill and donations. We want to continue to further develop the platform and to do so we need your help.

The next steps for Lantern.

  • We are looking to raise money to further develop the Lantern platform. Our plans are to enable people to network memories together and acknowledge individual memories of the same person.
  • We also want to enable these memories to be collated into a keepsake that can be purchased, the little book of memories.
Donate

Please contact the following pages if you have been affected by a bereavement.

Bereavement support

If you have been affected by a bereavement due to Covid19

This site uses Cookies to help improve user experience. All data is anonymized and is processed following the GDPR guidelines. To find out more read our Privacy Policy.