Hey! About My Fellow is an obituary/memorial that I built to improve my backend/frontend skills and to honor our beloved ones. I started with this demo and I'm improving the layout and code to match what I want to make: an obituary/funeral plan that is lighter and with a touch of humor. you can check the demo here
I know this is not a regular thing to build.
On April 28, 2022, I was with one of my brothers at a Kiss concert, living a dream. He was so happy—it was his first Kiss concert, and it was my second one. (I don't want to sound like we were that type of sweet siblings, full of love. We were the type of siblings who loved each other but never admitted it, and we fought a lot when we were young.)
On April 20, 2023, we were at a Helloween concert, and one of the songs they played was Best Time, which says:
I will have the best time of my life
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.
I listened to that song with my heart filled with gratitude.
On April 28, 2023, exactly one year after one of the best days of my life and basically a week after another great time, my brother decided to go to the beach, and unfortunately, he drowned. Yes, he knew how to swim. Yes, he was healthy. The guy who was with him tried to explain what happened, and to be fair, I never wanted to listen to the details.
My family was not traditional in this aspect—we talked about death, we always made jokes about everything, and jokes about death... well... were the lightest ones. So judgment was always there, and those outside our circle thought we just didn't care. But the pain is there, and people need to try to respect how others deal with grief.
After his death, I started to think about how to deal with grief, because to be fair, I'm not over it. Even though my family is mostly rational, it still hurts. A LOT. That's how About My Fellow started to take shape.
I wanted a place to honor people (and pets), but at the same time, I didn't want something purely sad. I wanted to help people remember their loved ones with love, in the way they would have wanted to be remembered. I wanted them to feel free to make jokes if they wanted to, without the fear of being judged. Because, at the end of the day, those who are not involved will continue with their lives, and maybe, sometimes, they will remember that someone died someday... But we are the ones who will go to sleep with this pain forever.
So, let's try to make it lighter. Let's try not to bury ourselves in depression, and let's share stories.
You can check the backend here.
My main area is Frontend, so it's basically my first backend project. I had an idea how node works, but is the first time that I put my hands dirty in backend and to be fair, I'm enjoying it. Seems like I'm a frontend rebel after 5 years centering divs (kidding, I had some cool and not cool challenges as a frontend).
I'm basically using typescript, next/react, node, express, mySQL and sequelize. It's a work in progress, so I still have a lot of things to do:
- Feature flag
- Tests (backend and frontend)
- Improve UI: design, css/styled components
- Adding new features: likes, gifts, gallery, etc.