Losing a child is difficult, even when they’re in their twenties. Parents want to hold onto their memories as best they can and to memorialize the things in life that made the child special.
In the case of Rita Shameeva, that was her Iphone. Buried in Ufa, Russia, in the Yuzhnoye cemetery, her father Rais arranged to have an unusual tribute built for her. It’s a five foot tall basalt slab carved to look like her smartphone.
Her birthdate, September 20, 1990 is carved into the bottom alongside the day of her passing, January 27, 2016. The “screen” of the Iphone displays an image of Rita, while the back of it contains a perfect Apple logo.
Specific details of Rita’s life are difficult to pin down, despite curiosity from various news sites and internet researchers. She is said to have worked in the telecommunications field and to have been a bit of a smartphone addict. The local headstone maker has been interviewed by the Nigerian Guardian and insists he was not the person who created the stone Iphone. It is known that she traveled and that pictures of her with German friends are available, but generally both she and the family seem to have kept out of the public eye.
The family obviously wanted to change that with her passing, creating a memorial that has sent Rita’s image all over the globe on one final journey.
Question of the night: What’s your favorite smartphone app?
