Caleb Logan Bratayley’s Memorial Service Streamed Online, Thousands Tune In To Mourn YouTube Star

YouTube star Caleb Logan Bratayley died suddenly last week, and Tuesday evening, fans, friends, and family mourned the teen’s loss together. The family decided to make the memorial service available to fans via a live stream online, and it seems that supporters embraced the opportunity to join the family in saying goodbye.

As People shares, Caleb Logan Bratayley’s memorial service was made available via both Facebook and Periscope. While videos on Periscope only stay up for a limited amount of time, the family has indicated via Facebook that they will keep posting links for the service there should early ones expire. The Facebook post along has been viewed nearly 300,000 times just in the first 16 hours of being live.

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Caleb Logan’s memorial service included a video of highlights from throughout the teen’s life, and many family members and friends shared stories about their relationship with Bratayley. However, reports indicate that Caleb Logan’s immediate family had the opportunity to share some remarks privately, outside of the live streaming.

One of the teen’s cousins, named Paige, said as follows.

“Caleb knew how to light up a room, he was like a little brother to me, he loved life and he enjoyed every little bit even if it was things he didn’t necessarily feel like doing he was a trooper.”

Though the Bratayley family may not be familiar to everybody, their YouTube channel has become a monster hit. The family started posting videos about themselves in December, 2010, and they now have nearly 1.75 million subscribers. Their videos have already garnered more than 1 billion views on YouTube, and their other social media accounts have taken off as well.

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Family and friends were stunned when the news came out that Caleb Logan had died suddenly on October 1. The family has indicated that the 13-year-old died from an undiagnosed medical condition. The family shared via ABC News that there is a history of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the family, but further details about exactly what happened with Caleb Logan have not yet been revealed.

The family has posted a couple of videos since Caleb Logan’s death, noting his “incredibly funny, loving and wonderful spirit” that made everybody fall in love with him. They have felt it was important to provide an opportunity for fans to mourn alongside them, though they also asked for people to bear with them as they deal with this stunning loss.

Another video, titled “Dear Future Self,” was posted on October 3. The video includes a note indicating that the post they put up on their Instagram, confirming Caleb Logan’s death was, indeed, accurate.

The family notes that they posted the video in part to show fans how happy and healthy Caleb was right before his death, and how he was doing what he loved. That video alone has been viewed more than 4 million times already, garnering more than “77,000” likes and almost 80,000 comments with fans sharing their condolences.

As for why the Bratayley family decided to make their son’s memorial service so public, People shared some insight from those close to the family. The family has indicated that they want to provide an opportunity for closure for their fans, many of whom are quite young. They also feel that by the nature of their celebrity, coming via social media, they have a fairly intimate relationship with their fans and they feel connecting in this time of tragedy is the right decision.

The Bratayley family has had some pushback from people online over the decision to stream the memorial service. Some online commenters have wondered if the tragedy is being used as an opportunity to build the family brand and gain views. For the most part, however, fans seem supportive of the way the family has handled the situation and clearly many were glad to have the opportunity to tune in to the memorial service stream in the wake of Caleb Logan Bratayley’s death.

[Image via Bratayley Family / Instagram]