Death by Joy
DEATH BY JOY is an escorted journey to the next world. Your guide is Mary, a quirky, selfless, funny, and irrepressible fifty-five-year-old who is told she will be dead in weeks without aggressive medical intervention. But Mary chooses to forgo that route. The physical has a time and place; what matters more to Mary is that essence—call it […]
Spray paint marks the spot
Story in The Times Staff at Mortonhall crematorium, Edinburgh, have since 1967 been telling families that no ashes can be retrieved from the cremation of babies who die at or around the time of birth. They have been secretly burying the ashes in a mass grave. We covered this here. In response to public outrage, […]
Holes, moles and other graveyard musings
Posted by Kitty ED’S NOTE: Kitty is a relatively new commenter on the blog. She emailed the following to us, and we are pleased to post it. Come one, come all, we say. I’m not that keen on cats and my name’s not really Kitty. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and being anonymous seems the […]
Death sentence passed on graveyard dunny
You loved Millaa Millaa’s coffin-shaped dunny, remember? Well, it’s going to be done in. Built by the Chamber of Commerce on council-owned land, it has been condemned on the trivial grounds that it lacks planning permission and falls foul of any number of building and plumbing regs. 90 per cent of Millaa Millaa’s population petitioned […]
End of Life Planning Seminar
We are pleased to advertise this upcoming seminar held by Colin Moore, a good friend of the GFG: End of Life Planning Seminar This seminar shows you how to create different funeral ceremonies through powerpoint and exercises. You will learn about the many funeral choices available and how to discuss these options with families. We […]
Felt feels fab
Fans of Yuli Somme, who makes the beautiful Leafcocoons, crafts other lovely stuff from her felt offcuts. Nothing goes to waste in her workshop. Here at the GFG-Batesville Shard, when the temperatures drop, we swear by Yuli’s fabulous foot felts — insoles for our shoes. They are brilliantly comfy and cosy — there’s nothing like […]
A new natural burial ground in the Surrey Hills
Our congratulations to Simon Ferrar, a good friend of the GFG, on the opening (at last!) of his natural burial ground at Clandon Wood. We don’t think it was the official, ceremonial opening, which is set for the new year. He’s invited us to come along. We’ll be buying a new hat for that. Wild […]
Baby ashes scandal hits Edinburgh
From 1967 until last year, when a new manager was appointed and instituted a cleanup, Mortonhall crematorium, Edinburgh, has been telling parents that children who die antenatally or neonatally do not yield ashes when they are cremated. For an untold period the crematorium has been burying their ashes secretly in cardboard boxes in an unmarked, […]
QSA wins the Guardian Charity Award
Quaker Social Action was today recognised for its work against funeral poverty. The charity, known as QSA, beat almost 1,000 other entries for the coveted Guardian Charity award, becoming one of five to win the annual prize. The honour is given for QSA’s work with bereaved families preventing them from paying over the odds for a […]
The price for assisting suicide
A study by the University of Zurich has shown that a quarter of people who accompany someone to commit order cialis from canada assisted suicide suffer serious psychological distress. The results are available in the October issue of the Journal European Psychiatry. More
