Back in October of 2020, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, my mum passed away, she had ovarian cancer and due to a number of factors this was not picked up early enough, after her diagnosis, and the worst phone call of my life, she rapidly declined in health and was gone before any of us had time to really comprehend what was happening.
Everything was made all the more challenging by my personal situation... I was in Canada on a work permit that had lapsed as the Canadian government had stopped issuing them... I was allowed to stay and work in the country, but if I left, I could not return.
This left me in Canada, and my Dad in the UK, with my sister visiting him and a few friends… but no way for me to really connect…
We FaceTimed weekly, and we texted… but is just wasn't the same, I bought a better webcam, almost a business quality setup, but still, I wanted more connection.
I bought Dad a Meta Quest 2 VR headset, and we began an adventure of exploration and connection together. We met weekly for hours at a time, and did many things, we became obsessed with Walkabout Mini Golf by Mighty Coconut, we would sit in our home spaces and just chat, we would build things together in Horizon Worlds by Meta, and the feeling of being there in person, with him, was incredible…
My fondest memory so far was when we both shared an experience in an app called Wander by Parkline Interactive, it allows you to walk around in 3D space using Google Street View imagery… and I brought my dad to Burlington Ontario, where I live. We walked for hours along the lakeshore, walked through the city centre, and then visited my house…
He’s never been to my house, my parents didn’t get chance to visit as the pandemic started only a short time after we arrived in Canada, and this experience was so moving that we were both nearly in tears. He got to see where I live, asked a bunch of questions, we laughed and joked, and we were stood just outside my front door… the temptation to rip the headset off and go greet him outside was almost overwhelming…
To this day, two years later, we connect in VR pretty much every weekend, now often joined by my wife, and sometimes other friends, we might play Minigolf together, or just talk, last week were were on a raft in the ocean, dad was catching fish and barbecuing them, while I tried to make repairs!
Joining a FaceTime or Zoom now feels so disconnected, impersonal, and has no sense of presence… and meeting in the MetaVerse has become our main way to connect.