NOW even death is no excuse for missing your wedding anniversary. A new range of internet services allows people to send e-mail greetings to their loved ones from beyond the grave.

The websites are being used to send birthday wishes to friends, congratulations on a graduation and to keep spouses happy. Before they die, users can programme the sites to fire off posthumous e-mails on key dates each year. They can even set up their own internet memorial in advance. It goes live when the website is alerted to a subscriber’s demise.

The websites are part of a growing trend for “digital wills”. Although they are not legally binding, the online wills are designed to ensure that next of kin can gain full access to a dead person’s musings on sites such as Facebook and Hotmail, as well as passwords for internet banking and other e-documents.

Simon Gilligan, 63, from Littleport, Cambridgeshire, has created a digital will on lastmessagesclub.co.uk, which launched this month, in tandem with a paper will.

“It has things like personal messages to my wife and children and various details of my bank accounts, e-mail and my Facebook account,” he said.

“I did it because I have heard of situations where people have died and it has taken a long time to get the information. This will make it easier for my wife and children.

“I would definitely consider setting it up to send another e-mail out to my family on a birthday. That would choke everybody up.”