In what will be a surprise to almost everyone I have decided to close the site. Please don't be upset, there is nothing to be sad about. For the past decade I have brought you the Shrine and enjoyed (almost) every second of it. I can't fully articulate how appreciative I am that most of you let me back into your lives and for some of you I thank you for letting me in for the first time. It has truly been a pleasure to follow along and help others follow along as we went our seperate ways in life.

However, I've known for a few years now that this day would come. When I started this thing in 1999 I had no idea what would come from it. The Journey from then to now has been crazy. Through College life, Vacation Photos from around the Globe, Marriages, Children, the loss of RJ and everything in between we've all come together in such an amazing way that I honestly have a tear in my eye right now as I type this. But as the years came and went we became more and more connected. When I started this site it was a big deal when someone would find it out of the blue and update or send in pictures. Nowadays, and for the past few years, that's started to become less and less common. Almost everyone is online now. We're not all looking at Fischbach like he's a huge nerd. Well, ok, I still kinda do, I CAN ADMIT IT, but being online is now something everyone does. Almost everyone has a Myspace or a Facebook or both. Almost everyone is easily reachable if they chose to be.

What prompted this decision to finally be made was the fact that in 2009 I was asked to remove more information from the site than I was asked to add to it. It really hit home that in a heavily-connected world the thing people really were striving for was the last bits of digital-privacy that they could cling to. I began to realize that this site would either have to change to a private, registration-only site to keep up or it would have to accept it's fate. I fought it for a long time, it's a very difficult decision to take down something I've spent ten years building but over the Christmas Holiday I finally found peace with the decision. I don't know how or why but I suddenly felt like it was right. It was time.

There's nothing to be sad about. If you've been following the site for years, as many of you have, I'm sure there will be some initial sadness. Believe me it ripped me apart for much of the last 6 months but we have to find happiness in it. We have to remember the good times. Remember those updates where you found someone you lost along the way. Remember the pictures of someone's baby that lives across the country. Remember anything that ever made you smile. That's what this was always about, finding happiness that was lost along the way.

If you can remember something on this site that made you smile then I did my job. Your smiles are all the thanks I ever needed or wanted. I honestly can't thank all of you enough for making this site grow and prosper for all these years. A few years ago I couldn't think of what my life would be without this site but at the same time I couldn't imagine still running it when I was in my sixties or seventies. Now I know why. It's not because the desire isn't there it's because we slowly became obsolete. We've all moved onto bigger and better websites that can cater to all of our individual preferences. Again, there's nothing I want anyone to be sad about. There's nothing wrong, there's nothing that happened that suddenly prompted this to happen. It's simply time to accept what i've known was the fate of this site.

Obviously I'll still be around, i'm not leaving the Internet so I hope you'll all still talk to me. Some of you may talk to me and send me MORE pictures now that you know it won't be going on the net but that's up to you. You all have my email here which should be active for the forseeable future, I have my hotmail, a facebook (that I don't really use, sorry), a myspace, etc...I'm not hard to find if you want to find me.

Thank You all again, honestly, from the bottom of my heart. It's been a privelege.

~Matt