A bird’s-eye view: Jack’s funeral
Posted by Juno Gatsby Jack’s granddaughter called me and asked if I could recommend a venue for his funeral service. His family knew he didn’t want his last journey to be in a church or crematorium. He would be laid to rest in their local cemetery after his farewell ceremony. We talked about hotels and […]
Skeletons in the closet — and other places
From an article in yesterday’s Guardian: The University of Cologne is investigating after hundreds of human body parts were found in the cellars of its institute of anatomy, apparently abandoned there for years.
Advertising Standards Authority passes judgement on Colourful Coffins
Copied and pasted directly from the ASA website here: Advertising Standards Authority Adjudication on Colourful Coffins Ltd Colourful Coffins Ltd Printworks Crescent Road Cowley Oxford OX4 2PB Date: 14 March 2012 Media: Internet (on own site), Brochure, Magazine Sector: Business Number of complaints: 1 Complaint Ref: A11-176349 Ad A claim on the […]
The status of marriages and funerals
Posted by Richard Rawlinson I recently had a conversation with a priest about the topic du jour: same-sex civil partnerships–which offer legal equality–becoming known as marriages, so gaining semantic equality by reinterpreting a term traditionally reserved for the union between a man and woman as they become husband and wife. For some reason, the discussion […]
Four things oldies need to keep bouncing back
In a useful and instructive blog post, Bobbi Emel discusses what oldies need if they are to be able to adapt to the falling-to-bits process.
Post mortem correspondence
If the Daily Mail didn’t exist, would the schtoopid things it reports ever happen? Probably not. Here’s what we mean. A Bristol woman opens a letter addressed to her newly dead brother. It is headed claim ended: cl death Your claim for benefit has ended with effect from the above date for the reason shown. If […]
How to feel at home
Posted by Kathryn Edwards Delving again into Emily Post’s funeral etiquette produces another fascinating blast from the past: the bereaved need to decide whether to hold the funeral in church or at the house. Emily suggests that a church funeral can be more trying, in that the family have to leave the seclusion of home […]
Feed Me To The Wind
Don’t pay any attention to the photo above. If you missed Feed Me To The Wind, a very good programme about ashes on R4 this morning, don’t despair; you can listen to it on the BBC website. Here’s the Beeb blurb: Tens of thousands of ashes remain uncollected or unscattered. Amanda Mitchison looks at the […]
From God we come and to Him we return
A thought for the day from Richard Rawlinson The trend for funerals conducted as celebrations of life must surely stem from society’s weakened belief in life after death. Even Christians now opt for the panegyric of the dead through tributes to the deceased instead of a ceremony combining natural grief for the loss and hope […]
Presswatch
The weekend yielded three newspaper articles about funerals. The Indy’s is a way-to-go survey. It begins by reflecting the current morbid fascination with the demise of enormous people and the consequent indignities of going out big, making play of wardrobe-size coffins and cranes used to lower them. Health is the new morality, of course, so […]
