Memorialisation option
Edward John Trelawny’s Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author is, according to blogger Pykk: a gossipy, wayward, autobiographical book by a moustach’d Romantic who tracked down both poets in 1822 and stayed with them for a while by the Mediterranean. He was still there when Shelley died, and alert enough to rescue the poet’s unburnt […]
Chirpy-chirpy tweet-tweet
Some recent tweets for those of you who do not do birdsong: GoodFunerals Charles Cowling “F*** off, they’re for the funeral.” Most death jokes aren’t very funny, but this is: http://bit.ly/fpKw9J GoodFunerals Charles Cowling Dead woman stirs and stands up on the way to her funeral:http://bit.ly/eWkBqb GoodFunerals Charles Cowling Go on pestering family and friends long […]
Trendy
There’s a nice cartoon in the Christmas Spectator. It’s so verbal I can reproduce it in words. If you’re arty, draw it on the blank sheet above. The Grim Reaper has come for a man, who is standing in his doorway. Reaper G responds to a query. “Scythe? Scythe? You must be joking. Scythes went […]
Smoothie
I enjoyed this blog post from an American woman living in Paraguay. Her husband is some sort of religious minister. Here’s the custom out there: In the jungle, among the Ye’kwana tribe, burials also had to be done quickly. If the family was christian, the dying person would be allowed to remain in his hammock […]
Right to die – when is it, and do you have a?
Assisted dying, self-deliverance, euthanasia and allowing people to die naturally – all these are hot topics which can only get hotter. I’ve just had this email from CareNotKilling, and anti-assisted dying org: Channel 4 are giving you the opportunity to voice your views on a series of short films about euthanasia, which are being shown on […]
Botched embalming?
Here’s a strange tale. Daniel Brennan died in Monklands Hospital, Airdrie, and was looked after Donald McLaren Ltd, est 1912. I don’t know if there was a post mortem, but we are told that Daniel’s illness was a short one. When Daniel’s mother went to see him at the funeral home she was appalled: “I […]
Thought for the day
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life played at a funeral. Children in a playground giggling about sex.
What to pack for hospital
There’s an engaging little story in January’s Funeral Service Journal describing the custom at Norwich Great Hospital, back in the medieval day, requiring those who had fallen into indigent, aged decrepitude (50+ female BBC presenters, for example) to bring with them, as their entry pass, a coffin. Not so different perhaps from today when you would […]
Coffins on the shopping channel
Newcastle undertaker Carl Marlow has, by his own accounts, been quiet for the last five years — busy building his business. For his fellow undertakers this was too good to last. Carl has never been one to take the view that the best way to achieve change is to work within the industry, and this is […]
Death in the community
Here’s an interesting idea: the café mortel, or death café. Never heard of it? No, I hadn’t either. It’s a Swiss thing, apparently. In the words of the Independent: The concept, although a little morbid, is straightforward enough – a dozen strangers meet to have a drink and talk about death for a couple of […]
