The Tech That Helped Me Through My Dad's Death--and in Some Ways, Keeps Him Alive

When my dad died, he became part of the cloud. Not the one up high in the sky, but rather an online cumulus that now stores and archives a record of his last 18 months on earth. On my laptop, and even more prominently on my phone, I carry with me digital traces of my dad that I can't yet bring myself to access. Four years after his death, I still sit with a kind of grief that remains more raw than residual, and his memory lingers in digital purgatory--undeleted yet untouched; saved but not sought. He "lives" in this liminal digital space; like a grave I can't yet bring myself to visit, but simply know is there.