Nice way to go
Congratulations to Linda Blakelock and Phil Beach, whose funeral home, Divine Departures, has, after much refurbishment, opened in Gateshead. Linda is a refreshingly new presence in Funeralworld. She brings all the freshness of an outsider. Phil, on the other hand, is a seasoned professional of 16 years’ standing. It was a bad funeral which turned […]
The Empty Chair
Posted by Quokkagirl Each Christmas I, like many other celebrants, am asked if I will ‘do a reading’ at memorial services which funeral directors provide for their past clients. Being the secular contingent of the service, it’s usually a painful and time-consuming trawl through the poetry books to find something remotely suitable and relevant. There […]
Rats show the way to Christmas cheer
In junior high, I watched my teacher drop a rat brain into alcohol, and the alcohol seemed to eat away at the brain. So alcohol kills brain cells, right? Well, not exactly. The alcohol that you drink enters your bloodstream, and doesn’t actually attack your brain directly. Of course, there are other ways for alcohol […]
Never knowingly upsold
It’s been very interesting getting out and about visiting new funeral directors who have applied to be accredited by the GFG. We spend several hours looking around, getting to know, asking questions. It’s quite different from a visit by a trade body, of course. We’re there to evaluate the consumer experience. We look out for […]
There is an alternative
Parents of the children of Newtown: Our hearts are with you. We know from experience how lost you must feel. We also know how there is a system in place where you feel you are being kept from the one thing that need above all else – to be with your child. We want you […]
Death in the community
From KentOnline: Grave concerns have been aired over a coffin maker’s presence at a late night shopping event [in Tenterden, Kent]. Andy Clarke of Wealden Coffins, who makes unique curved and painted eco-friendly coffins, said his business had as much right to be there as anyone else. “It was quite interesting,” he said. “We had […]
Merry Christmas, Mum.
Posted by Kitty I braved the crowds this morning to go shopping in Windsor. I bought my mum a Christmas present. All perfectly normal you might be thinking. Except that she died several years ago. As I walked past the Dogs Trust charity stall with its banners inviting people to sponsor a dog, I was suddenly […]
Leave your body behind you
posted by Vale Leave Your Body Behind You” Child of Eden your time is short, You can’t leave with more than you’ve brought. Love given lightly can never be owned, A thing we feel but can never hold. You leave your body behind you, When you leave this place, You leave your body behind you, […]
Witness to the funerals of the forgotten
Jim Koch has attended 180 indigent funerals in the past two years “because everybody deserves to have somebody there.”
Preparing the body
Posted by Vale I think this lovely poem manages to capture both the humanity and the brisk, professional approach a nurse would take to washing and preparing a body: Instruction Check: water, soap, a folded sheet, a shroud. Close cubicle curtains. Light’s swallowed in hospital green. Our man lies dense with gravity: an arm, his […]
