Top tips for funeral shoppers
Josh Slocum, Executive Director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance in the USA, is a major hero to all who toil at the GFG-Batesville Tower. Here he is talking on the telly about funeral pricing and home funerals. It’s interesting to note the similarities with the British funeral industry, in particular consumers’ disapproval of the marking […]
People are still dying of old age. What are the damn medics doing about it?
Extracts from an excellent article in the Washington Post: I know where this phone call is going. I’m on the hospital wards, and a physician in the emergency room downstairs is talking to me about an elderly patient who needs to be admitted to the hospital. The patient is new to me, but the story is […]
Quote of the day
“People come to you and say ‘Do you mind if I ask you how old you are?’ And you say ‘no’. It’s as if they want to say ‘Will you show me your arse?’ It’s some weird idea that it’s shameful to be old, something that is sick and smells bad instead of a source […]
Is Fear Killing Compassion for Older People?
Posted by Jon Underwood, founder of the Death Café project “In this case, ignorance is not bliss. With death, ignorance is fear.” Caitlin Doughty – The Order of the Good Death The UK Commission on Improving Dignity in Care chose the 29th of February to drop their bombshell in the form of a draft report on how to […]
Who knows where the time goes?
Posted by Vale Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving But how can they know it’s time for them to go? Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming I have no thought of time For who knows where the time goes? Who knows where the time goes? Sad, deserted shore, your […]
Quote of the day
Posted by Vale “You’d better get busy, though, buddy. The goddamn sands run out on you every time you turn around. I know what I’m talking about. You’re lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddamn phenomenal world. … I used to worry about that. I don’t worry about it very much […]
Death of a race car
Posted by Vale I have never loved cars. I side with H.G.Wells when he said that everytime he saw an adult on a bike ‘I no longer despair for the future of the human race’. Or Orwell when he said ‘Four wheels bad, two wheels good’. Or something like that. But I do understand that […]
All in a state funeral
Posted by Vale When is a state funeral not a state funeral? Back in 2008 there was speculation in the press about plans for a state funeral honouring the life and achievements of Lady Thatcher. The rumours were denied at the time but have never gone away or stopped being controversial. Look at the reactions […]
Chinese woman rises from the dead
There’s one of those curiosity stories in the Daily Mail that may tickle you. Briefly, a 95 year-old Chinese woman died. She was coffined at home and spent the following days being farewelled by her neighbours. Six days later — the day before her funeral — neighbours arrived to find the coffin empty. A search […]
They fit into a spread hand, yet reach into eternity
Posted by Rupert Callender, owner of The Green Funeral Company. As human beings, we look for meaning everywhere, superimposing it over everything that comes into our lives. The Australian aborigines believe that the world was vocalised into existence, literally sung into creation, and that the song needs to be continued so that reality can flourish. […]
