Our loved ones (heck, evil ones too) live as long as we remember.
A small freighter in open ocean experienced a major malfunction and went down. The small crew escaped just in time safely into their functional but otherwise bare lifeboat -- no radio call was made.
As time wore on, they told jokes.
After a while they ran out of the jokes everyone knew, and took to numbering them.
At various times, someone would break the silence with, "Number eleven." Folks would think for a minute, and break out laughing.
Similarly, here, there are some folks past who were so well remembered, that you may see someone post to an old thread with something like, "Today, is four years since Pete passed on. We remember him fondly."
All remembrances welcome, whenever they arrive.