What a rubbish funeral!
Artist Serena Korda collected dust from houses, businesses and institutions, compressing her finds of hair, dead skin and assorted waste products into 500 commemorative bricks. These bricks were displayed as part of the Wellcome Collection’s Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life exhibition. Now that the show has reached its end it’s time to dispose of […]
The Last Outfit
Posted by Charles These last outfits were chosen by some of the 23 people taking part in a photo project initiated by The Straits Times, the leading Singapore daily, in partnership with Lien Foundation, a Singapore philanthropic house. Entitled “The Last Outfit”, the project showcases individuals in the clothes they wish to wear for their […]
“You’re born alone, you die alone and in between you cheat yourself out of that realisation as agreeably as you can.” Robert Lenkiewicz
Posted by Rupert Callender of the Green Funeral Company Claire and I spent the last day of August At Torre Abbey on the seafront at Torquay, seeing an exhibition called Death and the Maiden, featuring the work of the painter Robert Lenkiewicz. To the uninitiated, Robert was a flamboyant Plymouth based artist, instantly recognisable by […]
Death in the community
Beyond the unappetising business of flogging pre-need plans to the tottering classes, undertakers do next to nothing to educate the public about funerals. They seek to be seen as public-spirited. They do good stunts, raise money for the hospice here, the air ambulance there. But how many stage events to raise awareness of the […]
Sob stories
Posted by Charles The misery memoir – awful childhood, frightful beatings, Oliver Twist never had it so good, that sort of stuff, ooh – has, it seems run its course. The torment vultures have flown the well-picked corpse and are now feasting on bereavement. I’ve been aware of growth of this new genre and largely ignored […]
Live burial – can you help?
Posted by Charles Once in a while we get a really interesting email here at the sweatshop we call GFG Central. The toiling minions are, as I write, clustering round the screen of the recipient. I’ll have to whip them back to their desks in a moment. The point is, it’s not for them. It’s […]
Home Death by Nell Dunn
Posted by Pippa Wilcox I wish I could tell you that the real-life stories portrayed in Nell Dunn’s play Home Death are over-dramatised. But they aren’t. It seems to be a terrifyingly random lottery out there in terms of whether or not you will stumble across the sort of care package which will result […]
Companioning Uncle Bob
Companioning Uncle Bob I gave myself the job, the privilege it turned out, of enabling my Uncle Bob to spend his last few months at home. Death was not new to me, but dying was. I was no nurse, just a woman thankful to this dear old man for giving me family when I needed […]
‘Untimely’ Death
‘Untimely’ Death Death knocked on my door – it was a policeman come looking for the home of a child found unharmed amid the wreckage of a highway crash. I heard him say ‘grandparents’ and my mind saw Grandma long since ready for her death and Granddad who would never cope alone. That one word […]
Too Soon, Autumn
Get back on the trees you errant leaves! How dare you fly across my path so soon? Forget your cheering colours, green will do. My body has not had enough of summer. Margie McCallum
