Thoughts of a funeral-goer
Posted by Lyra Mollington When my first grandchild was born, I decided I would like to be called Grandma. Fortunately the other grandmother decided she would prefer to be called Nanna. A few years later, I overheard my grandchildren Sebastian and Chloe talking about their ‘other grandmother’ and they were calling her Nice Nanna. Intrigued, I […]
What complaining through the Funeral Arbitration Scheme feels like
From: Beverley Webb Sent: 15 August 2012 23:03 To: Weymouth Abbotsbury Rd (TCF) Subject: Gloria Roper Importance: High Dear Ms Allen We are writing to request you send us a copy of the estimate of costs of our late mother’s funeral and copies of the agreement we signed in your office in Weymouth on December 8th 2011, you can email […]
Sea la vie
From the Guardian, 1 July 2011: For three soothing weeks in autumn, the endless roaring traffic on London’s Euston Road, one of the most choked and grime-polluted in the capital, will have competition: the sound of waves breaking and pebbles crunching, relayed live from Chesil beach in Dorset and wrapped in a sound sculpture around the […]
Memorials of shame
Posted by Richard Rawlinson The world is full of memorials to those who have left it, from the Pyramids of Egypt and India’s Taj Mahal to benches on the Promenade in Brighton and central Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The latter, by architect Peter Eisenman, has been criticised for being too abstract and […]
Please, sir, can I have the skeleton?
The case of Christopher Harris vs Woodstock Town Council focussed the not inconsiderable minds of the GFG workforce on the vital necessity of forwarding all tricky legal enquiries straight to Teresa Evans, thence to John Bradfield if necessary. While we are often to be found curled up with a copy of Davies Law of Burial, […]
Body or ashes at the funeral?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson As a blogger, I may seem as impervious to the ways of secular funerals as a civil celebrant is to the customs of Catholicism. But as a reader, I’ve mulled over ideas presented here to find they’ve struck a chord. While unprejudiced readers will already realise I value choice, whether religious or […]
Temporary temples
Posted by Rupert Callender If the sun shines in between the deluge, the next few days should see armies of combine harvesters moving across the land, particularly in Wiltshire, the UK’s breadbasket, bringing in the harvest, and bringing this year’s crop circle season to a close, too. After a slow start it has built to be […]
Mother and child
By Richard Rawlinson Whether or not we think death is the end, news of the death of the mother of an unfound victim of the Moors Murders has brought home how natural it is to seek solace in the proximity of the departed. Winnie Johnson, who died of cancer aged 77, had hoped for 50 years […]
Wow, Betty!
From the Carlisle News and Star: A tea dance at The Shepherds Inn, in Montgomery Way, Carlisle, will replace the traditional wake, after the 83-year-old’s funeral at Carlisle Crematorium. Elizabeth Ellen Brown, known as Betty to her many friends, colleagues and family members, had planned her funeral a week before she died. Her death at […]
Council changes ashes policy after bereaved family complains
From today’s Oxford Mail: A TOWN council has been forced to change its policy on interring ashes after a bereaved family took the authority to task. Christopher Harris objected to Woodstock Town Council’s rule that said people must employ the services of a funeral director to oversee the interment of a loved one’s ashes. Mr […]
