Council warns undertaker about soliciting
Back in July we posted a report about an unsatisfactory Co-op Funeralcare-arranged funeral: “Beverley Webb and Michelle Blakesley said the way Co-op Funeralcare handled Gloria Roper’s service was ‘shambolic’ after one worker said: ‘We’ve brought out our 4.15pm instead.’” Read it here. The matter we publicise today is Beverley and Michelle’s allegation that the Weymouth […]
FD Darren goes the extra mile
Darren Barker is the manager of Anglia Co-operative*, St Neots. When the family of a little girl who died last year found out how much it would cost to have the Gruffalo painted on her coffin, Darren offered to do it for them. He gave up his days off to do it. Says local celebrant […]
Open letter to George Tinning, Managing Director, Co-operative Funeralcare #4
Dear Mr Tinning, Woo, sorry! Caught you unawares? Thought we’d lost interest? No, we’re not going away. And not just us. There’s the GMB union, too. As you know, they’re disappointed in you for derecognising them in 2007. You can read their own campaign page here. How on earth can a co-operative banish a trade […]
Funeral director sponsors Olympian
From the Daily Mail: Chris Mears had a five per cent chance. Of living, that is. Nothing to do with diving. A five per cent chance of surviving an emergency operation on a ruptured spleen in a training hospital in Sydney. Impressive then that on Tuesday night, three years on, the 19-year-old was competing in […]
Ain’t Going Yet
Billy Jenkins is a guitarist, composer, bandleader, performer & humanist funeral officiant in London. These are his funeral wishes: Simple cremation for me From Poppy’s. No funeral. No music – for when a musician dies, there is nothing but Silence….. If anyone wishes to: Choose just one of my pieces of music. Play loud. Really listen […]
Don’t bring your work home
Dr Melvin Morse is a leading researcher into the near-death experiences of children. He is the author of Amazing Revelations of What it Feels Like to Die. You can find his website here. Dr Morse has just been arrested for allegedly waterboarding his 11-year-old daughter. According to the Times, “Police did not say if Dr Morse’s punishments […]
Mixed metaphor of the day
When debating the murder of 6 Sikhs in Wisconsin by a white supremacist: Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal accused Akali Dal of “baking political cake on funeral pyre” of the victims. Source
The seaside memorial bench
Ken West thinks the seaside memorial bench a peculiarly English thing. Is it? The GFG simply doesn’t get out enough to know. Do our continental friends and neighbours commemorate their LOs in this way? Ken also observes that seaside promenades are becoming very popular for the strewing of mortal cremains — often so thickly it […]
We salute you, Susan!
Susan Morris is no stranger to putting herself out for others. She is Trustee, Company Secretary and mainstay of the Natural Death Centre; an award-winning palliative care nurse; and, as you can see, an Olympic Volunteer. As you may imagine, she’s also terrifically nice — and, as her photo attests, she looks great in pink, […]
Is ceremony dying?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson This seems a strange question just after economically-challenged Britain has hosted the Olympics, a no-expenses-spared ceremonial games that unites nations in celebration of sporting prowess. But as the cult of individuality nibbles away at established social conventions, more and more people seem to be caring less for ceremony on a more intimate […]
