Fact of the day
Just over three-quarters of public health funerals conducted in 2010/11 were for men. Stat generated by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. More here.
A case of miserable mismatch
Spare a thought this morning for Lynda Hannah, owner of Living Legacies, a green funeral company in New Zealand with an alternative, less than rigidly formal approach to funerals. Ms Hannah likes to empower families to play their part, do what they can, take ownership. There are funeral directors of her ilk in the UK. Perhaps, after […]
Thought for the day
In parts of Africa it is said that people experience two deaths: one when their body dies, and the other when the last person who knew them dies. Cemeteries are living testimony to that. Source — a nice piece about cemeteries
Quote of the day
“Thank you so much for coming. Unlike the rest of you, I don’t have to get up in the morning.” Rob Buckman, doctor author, actor, comedian and broadcaster, who died last October after a career which was devoted to improving the way medics counsel the terminally ill. He left instructions for this message to be played […]
Ashroom
A fancy gaff? No, a tomb. The tomb of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, aka The Lion of the Punjab. His ashes repose in the middle, on the spot where he was cremated, in a marble urn shaped like a lotus. There are eleven other urns, those of his four wives and seven other women who threw themselves […]
Purifying flame
In Lucknow, India, Rajan Yadav is standing for Assembly elections on a manifesto of rooting out corruption. He wants to consign corruption to the funeral pyre, he says, and he is underlining this by conducting his campaign from a cremation ground. To make the symbolism complete, he has nicknamed himself Arthi Baba, the name given to […]
Crematoria need to offer a drop-off service. Will they?
We can speculate why it is that, in so-called advanced societies, the conventional funeral as an event is something dead people are increasingly bypassing. The point is that it’s happening, and demand for direct cremation (deathbed to incinerator) is growing. It is growing especially among educated liberal thinkers, precisely the constituency which was the first […]
Look away now
It was interesting to follow the unfolding debate amongst funeral directors and celebrants in response the blog post ‘C of E raises funeral fee to £160’ here. If you are one or the other, have you paused to wonder what on Earth any consumer would have made of it? Yes, look at it from that […]
Regulation: the only way to promote integrity, honesty and ethical behaviour within the funeral industry
From time to time the cry goes up, sometimes from the public, sometimes from funeral directors themselves, that it’s time to regulate the funeral industry. Here at the GFG we’re against it. We defend the principle that the dead belong to their own, not to a bunch of professionalised specialists. We’re open minded about most […]
Poem of the day
There will be exactly two schools of thought about this poem: The Funeral Director by Jerry J. Brown Listens, hears and understands… Communicates softly, a tear, a touch, a smile… Senses the shock and knows the numbness of disbelief and denial… Understands the intimacy of death, and quietly responds to each mood and moment… […]
