No stripping of the altars here
By Richard Rawlinson The row at Haycombe crematorium in Bath over the replacement of the cross-etched 1960s window with a clear pane – offering a neutral blank canvas for visitors of different faiths and none – is contextualised by this example of tolerance and diversity. The pictures here are of North London’s New Southgate Cemetery and Crematorium, […]
Diss-ceased
No sooner had we berated George Tinning, the beleaguered Nick Buckles figure who totters atop Co-op Funeralcare, for his use of the word ‘deceased’ accompanied by the indefinite article, than a commenter, commenting on this post, asked Jonathan, a human cat among pigeons of the very liveliest sort, “How many Deceaseds have you handled?” Perhaps […]
Open letter to George Tinning, Managing Director, Co-operative Funeralcare #3
Dear Mr Tinning, I found myself, this morning, entertaining one of those whimsical thoughts that pops into our heads when we’re showering. Have you noticed how people tend to say ‘He’s been dead for 30 years, now’ instead of, ‘He died 30 years ago’? It’s as if they regard death as something akin to a […]
Dark ops or what?
We’ve had a lot of correspondence here at the GFG since Dispatches flung that stuff about Co-operative Funeralcare in our eye (5 mins of telly souffléd into half an hour with a dollop of unleavened ombudsman). It’s been complaints, mostly, and of course I can’t go into detail about any of them. But almost all […]
The changing face of Irish funerals
By Richard Rawlinson Dublin undertaker Massey Brothers is responding to the changing attitude to religion in Ireland by offering families non-denominational funerals, online advice and motorbike hearses. While these initiatives may no longer be especially novel in Britain, they’re causing a bit of a stir in Ireland’s conservative, competitive and often quite unsophisticated funeral industry. There […]
Embalmer required
Excitement is building around the GFG Funeral Industry Awards – the first ever held for the Dismal Trade. There’s been a lot of press interest and, so far, stories in Metro and the BBC website. Sky are interested in featuring the event as part of a feelgood series about nice things happening to nice people. […]
Time’s up, take yourself out
A theme that we like to explore on this blog is the way in which longevity has reconfigured the landscape of dying. The blessing of long life has its downside: protracted decline. We are likely to linger longer, much longer, than our forebears. There’s a physical cost in chronic illness and possibly, also, mental enfeeblement. […]
West Grinstead says not in our back garden
A little over a week ago we glanced at a growing furore in Sussex over a proposed new crematorium. Here’s the latest news from the front line: More than once West Grinstead residents were told to ‘be civil’ as they grasped with open arms an opportunity to voice their opinions. Patrick and Matthew Gallagher, […]
Learning the hard lesson
Professor Kathy Black peppers each startled student enrolled in her University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee class with a single question on the first day: “How old will you be when you die, and what are you going to die of?” Halfway through the course, shaking them up again, she schedules a field trip to a […]
This is how it’s supposed to be
From the website of the Federation of Funeral Cooperatives of Québec: Cooperative funeral homes have proven a highly successful model in Canada, and especially Quebec. The cooperative movement is growing, with 9,600 deaths treated by funeral cooperatives in 2011 in Canada, up more than 5 percent from 2010. The Fédération des Coopératives Funéraires du Québec (Federation […]
