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 […]
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 […]
Hands on funeral for homeless man
Undertaker Rupert Callender in Totnes is appealing to his fellow townspeople to turn out to help carry the coffin of a homeless man, Michael Gething, through the streets to his funeral — and then on to the burying ground at Follaton, just outside the town. Rupert Callender said: “The act of carrying his coffin all […]
Hope for heroes
It’s been quiet for many undertakers and celebrants recently (though not in Scotland, our Caledonian agent tells us). Don’t despair! Hat-tip to Vale
You are the referee
Here’s another pay-up-or-else story — true but anonymised and deliberately undated. A funeral director is refusing to hand over the ashes until the balance of the bill is settled — which it will be if the DSS claim is successful. Does he have the right to do this? You can’t arrest a corpse for debt […]
Quote of the Day
“InvoCare has has seen little customer leakage.” Invocare is the major consolidated player in the Australian funeral industry, which bears close comparison in may respects with the UK funeral industry though it also has a strong US flavour. Invocare ceo Andrew Smith says: “Most families don’t pick a funeral director based on price. Most will pick based […]
Compassion fatigue
I vividly remember the first day my medical school classmates and I met our cadavers in the anatomy lab. Large body bags lay on metal tables that had been bolted to the floor. I remember the sheer size of the bags best. No doubt existed in my mind that dead human bodies indeed lay within […]
ITV Exposure Responses FPL & NAFD
The following statement was read out after the Exposure programme 24.10.2012 ‘Last month in ‘The British Way of Death’ Exposure went under cover in the funeral industry at Funeral Partners Limited revealing racism and disrespect of bodies and the bereaved. FPL who own the branches in Slough and Tooting, where we’d been filming, have apologised, five people have been […]
Gamble on the future
The GFG sends its congratulations and very best wishes to Stroud funeral director Michael Gamble, his wife Clare and all of the team as they prepare for tomorrow’s ceremonial opening of their lovely new funeral home. There to do the honours and snip the tape will be… our own Richard Honeysett.
Outraged tweet
Michael Sadgrove (@Sadgrovem) 18/10/2012 18:38 At funeral undertakers push coffin in & out of Cathedral in procession on a trolley. Don’t deceased deserve dignity of pallbearers any more? Michael Sadgrove is the Dean of Durham Cathedral. Hat-tip: Tony Piper
