A Good Goodbye
“Sometimes the best way to move recalcitrant parents or spouses along on preplanning [for death and its aftermath] is to make your own arrangements first. That’s what my husband and I did, telling his parents we were going cemetery plot shopping and asking if they wanted to come along. They came, they saw, they bought, […]
Gilded poo
It’s been a dispiriting couple of days. Once again the damned Co-op Funeralcare has re-announced the obvious in yet another self-serving survey and, incredibly, reaped a rich harvest of column inches in the UK’s newspapers. You’ve almost certainly encountered some of it. I wasn’t going to rise to it. At this time of the year […]
Upper class tweets
GoodFunerals Charles Cowling Satan’s skull found in New Mexico! http://bit.ly/fcDVTO GoodFunerals Charles Cowling Why do the clergy prefer funerals to weddings? Good account here from a C of E priest: http://bit.ly/ieIhzc GoodFunerals Charles Cowling What is a bhusa yong? Lovely photographic account here of a Thai funeral and open air cremation http://bit.ly/fcbNLH GoodFunerals Charles Cowling Good looking books […]
In the midst of death let there be life
There’s been a lot of interest in the US this week in what their media reckons to be a startling new trend. Owners of funeral homes, which over there are much roomier than ours, are reacting to shrinking profits – the impact of the rise in cremation and the slump in the economy – by […]
Aghori
The ascetic’s refusal to accept worldly comforts is venerated by Hindus, but the awesome, horrifying renunciation of the AGHORI sadhu seems to defy the norms of civilized life. He will live only in the cremation ground, cook his food on the fires of the funeral pyre, eat and drink from a hollow skull that he […]
Bad gets worse
Once in a while you read something which doesn’t just confirm your instinct, it informs it. That happened to me bigtime today. Blogger Viridis Lumen has a post on this very sad story. The undertaker at the heart of this heartless event was our old friend Dignity plc, the company spawned by the vile, scandal-ridden […]
Death ed
There’s a brilliant piece over at funeralwise.com that I think you will want to read. It’s an interview with a teacher, George Campbell, who used to teach a death education class to his high school students.Yes, a death ed class. Could any teacher in Britain propose such a thing without getting death threats? Here’s a […]
The good look
1920s advertisement by a Boston (USA) embalmer: For composing the features, $1 For giving the features a look of quiet resignation, $2 For giving the features the appearance of Christian hope and contentment, $5 What is the look that present day Brit embalmers are coached to create? Whatever happened to consumer choice?!! Source: Lisa Carlson
DADBA
There’s a nicely written piece over at Obit magazine, a review of a new book, The Truth About Grief: The Myth of Its Five Stages and the New Science of Loss (Simon & Schuster), by Ruth Davis Konigsberg. It’s probably worth reading. It’s a demolition job on certain schools of bereavement counselling — those informed […]
Poem
Memoir It has been absolutely fascinating being me. A unique privilege. Now my whole life lies ahead of you. No thanks at all are called for, I assure you. The pleasure is all mine. Dennis O’Driscoll
