Vicar says no
“The only time I have turned any request for a song down was the occasion I was asked to take a funeral for an elderly gentleman and they want to play “Relax” as he was brought in. I reckon I am about as liberal they come on some issues but even I could not maintain […]
Inspired omission
The new Bond film features a military repatriation Wootton Bassett-style. Seems there’s been a boob. According to the Telegraph: Roger Smith, a funeral director brought in to take part in the scenes, tells Mandrake that he was shocked by the film makers’ ignorance. “The annoying thing was that the directors didn’t seem aware of the […]
Quote of the day
A 90 year-old woman, told she was dying: “How could this happen to me? Just bad luck I guess.” Quoted here.
A cycle of denial and fear
We’ve extracted this from a Q and A with mortician Caitin Doughty in the Los Angeles Times. Some brilliantly expressed insights here, we’re sure you’ll agree. Do people see death differently in other parts of the world? How — and how does that change the way they respond to death? Some cultures are terrified of […]
There were six of us in the house. Seconds ago there had been seven.
Fran and her Mum on her 70th Fran Hall, a funeral industry practitioner of many years’ standing, much admired by the GFG, now works as a consultant. She is also the newly-appointed Chair of the Natural Death Centre. For years Fran successfully managed to balance detatchment and empathy in her professional life, so how did it feel when […]
Which? hunt
Okay then, what’s so what’s our line on the latest media coverage of Funeralworld sparked by the ‘consumer advocacy organisation’ Which? deploring mendacious, predatory funeral directors? All the age-old charges are levelled against funeral directors: opaque pricing, upselling, and talking people into services they don’t need like embalming. Out of 20 funeral directors mystery shopped […]
Dethe where is thy sting, where Grave thy victory cry Molesworth
Posted by Vale Ronald Searle is no more. We marked the day here at the GFG Batesville tower with a blog post and a brief period of mourning by dressing like Alaster Sim playing the headmistress of St Trinian’s. Enuff said. But, in the pages of the Economist, the grate Molesworth himself has remembered […]
Without knobs on
From Richard Rawlinson, our religious correspondent, who is a Catholic. The campaign against ugly and extraneous coffin handles launched by aesthete and designer David Hicks, which the GFG ran a little while back – here – has support in high places. Pope John Paul II’s coffin was beautiful in its simplicity.
Second-hand coffin for sale
A used casket went up for sale last month at a Los Angeles auction house with the estimate price of $1,000. The ‘one previous owner’ was Lee Harvey Oswald, President John F Kennedy’s suspected assassin. Shot dead by Jack Ruby just days after JFK’s murder in 1963, he was buried in Texas, but was unearthed […]
Best of Fife
You remember Neil Brunton? He’s the singer-songwriting-undertaker you voted for a while back in that Radio 2 competition. Let us refresh your memory here. Well, partly thanks to you he’s made it to the final. Here’s the story (abridged): Neil Brunton has reached the final stages of a national songwriting competition called Oldie Composers, on […]
