Only in…
Continuing today’s hearse theme: Parked opposite the biggest state hospital in the region are a few odd-looking, modified vehicles with a prominent stage and a decorative dome above. They are equipped with steps, stretchers and chairs and are marked with philosophical quotes like “towards the creator bidding adieu to creation”. A player in the funerary […]
Introducing the self-drive hearse
There’s a small but growing number of funeral shoppers who are becoming increasingly determined to find funeral directors who will assist them, or partner with them, in arranging a funeral. Some simply want to roll their sleeves up and do their bit for the person who’s died; others want to keep the costs down. It’s […]
Great myths of Funeralworld
Posted by Richard Rawlinson No. 1: If politicians stopped shirking the critical issue of grave space running out in urban churchyards and cemeteries, and instead hastened legislation to reuse graves after a period of 75 years, they would be hounded out of office by an outraged public, and tabloid headlines such as, ‘Government to dig up […]
Living dangerously
No one here at the GFG-Batesville Shard volunteered to do this gig, so we’ve sent along the work experience lad. Probably the last we’ll see of him. The venue is the Royal College of Art. Coco de Mer stock a range of mischiefmaking Valentine’s Day gifts — if you’re just waking up to the imminence […]
British flowers for British funerals
At Lower Blakemere Farm in Herefordshire, Heather Gorringe has been growing British flowers for British funerals since just last year. She says: Most flowers for funerals are just too formal, too regimented, and often just too white. Our flowers will look as if they have been gathered from our garden (and many of them will have been). […]
‘This is the way it should be done’
An account of a home funeral: This is the first time I am so close. There is a body bag on the table, waiting to be opened. Our best friends’ 22-year-old son’s body is inside. His mother and father are across from me, brothers beside, with several women gathered to form the circle around the […]
‘I want the world to see what they did to my baby’
From The Star, Toronto: If Americans knew what bullets did to human flesh, they’d support gun control. So perhaps they should be shown in living colour what bullets do to small bodies. A mere description is insufficient for the literal-minded. Noah Pozner, 6, was one of the 20 child victims in the Sandy Hook shooting […]
A ceremony of ashes
Posted by Vale We could do with thinking more about what the scattering of ashes. A while ago Evelyn published a wonderful post on the blog (find it here) about scattering Muriel’s ashes in an ‘open, high place’, and I came across this poem recently by Edward Storey. It’s a record of a committal, a wonderful […]
Funeral for a peacock
Carmella B’Hahn, of Bowden House Community, near Totnes, has allowed us to share here her letter to friends about the death and funeral of her significant companion-animal. I feel compelled to write about a happening here that has touched me to the core. Many visitors to Bowden House will have encountered an iridescent display of […]
Great myths of Funeralworld
Posted by Richard Rawlinson No. 1: The committal is when the curtains of the crematorium’s catafalque close. The final committal is when the ashes from a cremated body are buried in an urn, or perhaps ceremoniously scattered to the wind. Or, of course, when the body is buried intact in a coffin, cutting out the […]
