Letters And Flowers: How Games Help Memorialize Loved Ones We’ve Lost

It was late one evening as Meredith Myers was lying in bed relaxing when her sister, Jenna, walked in with an expression of shock on her face. Jenna had been taking an evening stroll in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, walking past fruit trees and over wooden bridges that connect the different parts of her town. Lolly, a friendly cat who had just moved into town, locked eyes with her and ran over.

"I didn't realize the mechanics of the game would do this--it showed my sister the letter after Lolly had moved from my town to hers," Meredith told GameSpot. "Lolly showed her the letter she had written to me in my town."

The letter her sister showed her was from their other sister, Kylie, who had passed away from cancer four years earlier.