Looking out for your own
Bradford undertaker David Birch, who died last weekend aged 74, will be borne into church by six undertakers at his funeral tomorrow. It’s a touching tribute to a man who was described as a ‘perfectionist’. The Bradford Telegraph and Argus adds: Although Mr Birch had retired in his sixties, he never let go of the […]
What to say at the really difficult ones?
It was an extraordinary business. You may have read about it. Back in May of this year, a grandmother shot dead her 17 year-old grandson in leafy suburb of Detroit. She’s in prison now, awaiting trial. Goodness knows what really went on. She looks harmless enough, and her grandson, Jonathan, doesn’t necessarily seem to have […]
Bristol’s First Death Cafe!
Bristol’s First Death Café 2nd November 2012 at 40 Alfred Place, Kingsdown, BS2 8DH 2.00 – 4.30pm Paula & Simon of Heaven on Earth Green Bespoke Funerals are holding a Death Café to coincide with the Mexican Day of the Dead. We will be providing a safe, relaxed space in which fears and joys of death and mortality can […]
To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always
This post is about psychoactive drugs, so you may want to look away now. There’s a lot of talk about them just now. Think David Nutt, the man who recently dosed people with MDMA (ecstasy) on television. He thinks ecstasy could be useful in treating depression and (ta-ra!) post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He’s no fool. […]
GFG ‘Recommended By’ listing relaunch
We have relaunched our ‘Recommended By’ scheme for funeral directors with a radically remodelled accreditation framework designed to make it sustainable and authoritative nationwide. As you know, we already have a limited listing of recommended funeral directors – a listing to which we have not added for some months. Why? Because of the very […]
A camper hearse
It was a touching little story and it was all over the papers a week ago: A mechanic appears to have predicted the circumstances surrounding his own death when he died from a heart attack after completing work on converting a VW campervan into a hearse. Mick McDonald, 50, had joked that the job would […]
The eloquence of silence
Posted by Georgina Pugh On Friday the autumn sun was just too much – I had to leave my cave like dwelling and head out somewhere you can touch the sky. On the advice of a friend I found myself at the edge of the North York Moors, just past the aptly named ‘surprise view’ at […]
Meaning in metaphor
We are driving to the crematorium for the committal. It’s late afternoon. A shower of rain is clearing as we breast a rise in the road and there in front of us is a rainbow. ‘Look!’ It’s a sign. It’s common at funerals for people to see a sign. Call it superstitious, call it what […]
Always go to the funeral
I believe in always going to the funeral. My father taught me that. “Always go to the funeral” means that I have to do the right thing when I really, really don’t feel like it In going to funerals, I’ve come to believe that while I wait to make a grand heroic gesture, I should just stick […]
RIP Lady Sybil ur in good hands
Dismalistas held rapt by the nativity of the first new-generation Crawley in the we’re-all-in-it-together tellydrama Downton Abbey, but who were then dumped into deepest grief by the death of Lady Sybil, will have felt their ears prick up at the announcement of the arrival of “Grassby’s men” to remove her body. Yes, Julian Fellowes, the […]
