Stat of the day
A study in Finland (1996) found that men are 30% more likely to die in the first six months after the death of their partner, and 20% more likely to die thereafter. Women, on the other hand, are 20% more likely to die in the first six months after the death of their partner, falling […]
The Common and the particular
Posted by Vale I like these men and women who have to do with death, Formal, gentle people whose job it is, They mind their looks, they use words carefully. I liked that woman in the sunny room One after the other receiving such as me Every working day. She asks the things she must […]
Interdependence
Posted by Vale We were saying farewell to a very old lady – nearly 99 – who had spent her last years living in a care home. She had no family there and, apart from myself and the organist, there were just four people present, all of them members of staff from the Care Home. […]
Before I die
Posted by Vale At the Southbank Deathfest in January one of the best features was the wall that invited people to write down what it was that they wanted to do before they died. The idea began in New Orleans when artist Candy Chang pasted the first ‘Before I Die’ wall on the side of […]
Last things
Posted by Vale When I was at school there was a short lived craze for making yourself faint. If I recall, you hyperventilated and then got a friend to squeeze you round the chest, at which point you passed out. It’s now claimed that this is equivalent to a near death experience. There’s a discussion […]
Pro-life campaigner dies
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Phyllis Bowman, founder of pro-life political lobbying organisation Right to Life died recently, aged 85. For half a century, right up to her final illness and last days, she fought tirelessly to save unborn babies from abortion and, more recently, against efforts to legalise euthanasia in Britain. Like other women who […]
Going down
The GFG website will be down for a period this evening for essential repairs. A man with a spanner, a hammer and a cold chisel needs to do some work on it. It will descend to the realm of the dead and rise in glory.
Funeral mystery
From Swaziland: MAFUCULA – Some mourners at the funeral of Lucky Nhlanhla Sifundza, the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC) employee who went missing and was confirmed dead three weeks later, were disappointed that they could not see what was inside his casket. They had hoped that the Sifundzas would open the casket and allow them to see what was inside before taking it to […]
Follow-up letter to George Tinning, Managing Director, Co-operative Funeralcare
Dear Mr Tinning, It’s almost a fortnight since I wrote to you on 27 June. You haven’t replied. I’m disappointed, of course. I’m not wholly surprised, though. You’ve had a lot on your plate in the aftermath of Undercover Undertaker — and now you’ve got an Early Day Motion in Parliament to contend with. The […]
Grievers hoodwinked, run amok and bamboozled by their undertakers
In the Bahamas some people are worried about their unregulated funeral industry, just as some British people are worried about their own unregulated funeral industry: “Have the Bahamian people been hoodwinked, run amok, bamboozled, by persons purporting to be funeral service practitioners who are (actually) charlatans? Charlatans are impostors. Have we been hoodwinked, run amok, […]
