Blog off
This blog is taking a break. It needs good sea air, best bitter beer, fresh seafood, long walks and things other than death to think about. It needs regenerating. Do come back. Posting shortly will be Kathryn Edwards on Malidoma Some and the role and importance of ritual in funerals. Kathryn has journeyed to Burkina […]
Bang to rights?
I don’t know if it’s the anarch in me or the libertarian, but I am inclined to be very relaxed about the absence of any regulatory structure for funeral directors. Almost everything you can think of is governed by regs designed to reassure and protect consumers. An unregulated funeral industry looks anomalous. Catteries are regulated. […]
Eulogy magazine – the reason why
Dear Charles, Please accept my sincere apologies for the late payment of your invoice. Eulogy has recently undergone a major restructuring after the departures of our features editor and three non-productive directors. I became a director after their departures and have looked to sort out the mess they left me with. In addition, a close […]
To accept what cannot be helped
A very good account here by Ann Hulbert of her mother’s response to being told she had an incurable cancer: Two years ago this coming June my mother—“an 80-year-old in a 60-year-old’s body,” the pulmonologist told her—was ambushed by a diagnosis of Stage IV adenocarcinoma of the lungs … In the windowless examining room at […]
Cheap trills
A roundup of the week in tweets. GoodFunerals Charles Cowling Burmese ambassador killed his wife and built funeral pyre for the body on his lawn, claiming diplomatic immunity http://bit.ly/iaBlTK 7 Feb Favorite Reply Delete GoodFunerals Charles Cowling LM Funerals cashes its chips. Up for sale at £100 million. Dignity sniffing. Thunderbolt please, God, if you’re there http://bit.ly/hCL7cw […]
Afore ye go
If we live long enough, our dying will be punctuated by lasts which we may even be able to mark off, one by one — last time in the garden; last time I’ll see so-and-so. Even if we don’t mark off our lasts, our nearest and dearest probably will, retrospectively. Our most memorable last ought […]
Conduct unbecoming
I don’t want this blog to get moany and bitter. Had I a good news story to break today I would most certainly do so. To be honest, not much has happened for a few days — and it’s all too easy for me to become lazily reactive. And a bit moany, I’m afraid. A number of […]
Legal, decent, honest and truthful?
This advert appeared in the Liverpool Echo. This is what it says: The Fairways Funeral Plan is individually tailored to meet your needs. Everything featured in the [yawn] Fairways Funeral Plan is fully guaranteed no matter how high prices rise and we’ve created flexible payment plans to suit any budget. So even in uncertain times, […]
Perfect boutique undertaker’s for sale
In the same week that LM Funerals (“More than just a funeral service” — or less, depending on your point of view) decided to cash in their chips and put their chain of familyalike funeral homes on the market (yours for £100 million or so – go on, don’t be so tight), the GFG can […]
Down and dirty?
One must be careful what one says. And before one says it, one must try and resist distraction. I had intended to say a few words about Co-operative Funeralcare. Yes, again. Because they’re worth it. They are The Enemy. (Hello, Co-op lawyers, see if you can find anything actionable in what follows.) But, as I […]
