Cherry blossoms
Posted by Vale Blossom bursting from bare wood, old hearts crack open spring sunshine. There is something unlooked for in the pleasures of spring: light, warmth and the flush of blossom; a sudden generosity beyond expectation. Japan marks this annual marvel by holding blossom viewing parties. It’s part of a culture which reverences nature by […]
What price value?
Over at the Connnecting Directors website here there’s a rant by a funeral home consultant, Alan Creedy. In it, we see amusing similarities between the US funeral industry and our own: Why do funeral professionals spend so much time fighting among themselves and never fighting for themselves? … Why is so much emotional energy spent on […]
Thoughts of a funeral-goer
Posted by Lyra Mollington I’ve been rumbled. My grandson let it slip that I’m writing for the Good Funeral Guide. My sister Myra has just phoned me – and she seems to have forgotten that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. M: Congratulations on your new hobby. What on earth possessed you to […]
Green cremation
It’s interesting to see how Resomation is taking off in the US — green cremation, they call it. Great name. In addition to the eco credentials and the energy efficiency of these Resomators, we wonder how just how attractive to US undertakers, sorry, funeral directors, is the lovely whiteness of the ‘ash’ you get from […]
A folklorist’s funeral
There’s a very charming and touching account here of what would conventionally be reckoned the very alternative funeral of Thomas Hine, pictured above. His beautiful Leafshroud, below, was made by Yuli Somme here.
London’s finest independent funeral directors
Posted by Richard Rawlinson I’m posed with a dilemma here, a choice between topicality or taste. Oh, publish and be damned. Forgive the timing in this, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, to raise the subject of Her Majesty’s official undertakers, Leverton & Sons, a 200-year-old family firm of funeral directors that has served London for […]
Goldfish Swirl
Goldfish Swirl We loved our fat Fred and sweet Dinah, Who came to us from the goose fair. As John threw his balls in a fish bowl, …Then chose his first prize with great care. The fish sloshed and dangled in plastic, In little hands grubby and warm. He carried them home oh so proudly, […]
Goodbye My Friend
Oh we never know where life will take us I know it’s just a ride on the wheel And we never know when death will shake us And we wonder how it will feel So goodbye my friend I know I’ll never see you again But the time together through all the years Will take […]
Death in Italy
Posted by Richard Rawlinson The Cremation Society of Great Britain this month publishes its international cremation statistics for 2010. See here. The country with the highest percentage of cremations is Japan at 99.9%, and the country with the lowest percentage is Ghana at 3%. But, for me, the most interesting comparison, is between the UK […]
Spoilsport
My father told me that he attended a funeral in the parish of Tuosist, in South Kerry, at the turn of the century. As the coffin was being taken in a cart to the local graveyard at Kilmackillogue, three women keeners sat on top of it, howling and wailing at intervals. The parish priest, on […]
