Can grief be assuaged by a nice big car?
Extract from Therapy, Legitimation or Both: Funeral Directors and the Grief Process by Ivan Emke (2003): One example of a product which is “sold” to funeral consumers is funeral automobiles. The sleek automobiles have become standard fare in funeral processions, but one can inquire about the function of these products. Do they help the families in their grieving? […]
Altered identity
Following on from Tim Clark’s post about grief, I am reminded of a piece by Janice Turner in last week’s Times about the hostile response to Jennifer Saunders’ announcement that she was free of cancer: She was accused of “slating” survivors and her remark that some wore the disease “like a badge” distressed terminally ill […]
Good grief?
Posted by Tim Clark Jenny Uzzell’s excellent GFG posting about the liminal state between death and burial has got me thinking, specifically about grief. Grief is love that has been made homeless; I don’t know where that came from, I first heard it in “Borgen,” the Danish TV political series. It’s a striking, poignant idea […]
A eulogy sandwich is not enough to nourish grief
As Jenny Uzell embarks on a series of posts which will consider the knotty question, What Is A Funeral For? it’s worth reflecting on what has been a game of two halves, funeralwise, in the last fortnight. Two people have expressed contrasting approaches to a funeral. First, there was Dave Smith, who arranged the funeral […]
Say Their Name
Film made by Jimmy Edmonds and Jane Harris, nominated for a Good Funeral Award. Beautifully crafted and very, very powerful.
For Father’s Day
Posted by Kitty My dad died when he was 70. Just a few years earlier, he had been diagnosed with leukaemia. It was my sister who realised that something was wrong. He was yellow. He hadn’t noticed. Too busy enjoying his well-earned retirement. His doctor told him he would die with it rather than from it. […]
Ask not what you can do for the bereaved; ask what the bereaved can do for themselves
SCENE – A village wedding. Church bells. Assorted villagers have assembled at the lych gate waiting for a glimpse of the bride. They are joined by a TOURIST who happily happens to speak perfect English. VILLAGER: There she is! Just coming round the corner now. Ooh, it’s a Rolls! TOURIST: Who’s that walking in front […]
Sacred geometry
In an as-told-to piece in today’s Sunday Times, extreme expeditioner Ed Stafford describes the hardships he underwent when he was dumped naked on a desert island. He found the loneliness and isolation especially difficult to bear. “My best technique for staying sane was something the Australian Aborigines taught me. I built a stone circle and […]
All that we miss
In his new book, Levels of Life, Julian Barnes writes of the grief he felt, and still feels, following the death of his wife, Pat Kavanagh. It centres on: “the loss of shared vocabulary, of tropes, teases, short cuts, in-jokes, sillinesses, faux rebukes, amatory footnotes — all those obscure references rich in memory but valueless if […]
Does failure feel like grief?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Not so long ago, The Independent’s left-wing young writer Johann Hari fell from being an award-winning media star when he was exposed as a self-promoting liar and cheat. The Economist was not convinced by his apology for plagiariasm. It’s now the turn of right-wing, young digital hack Milo Yiannopoulus. His mainstream profile […]
