Lifed off
As you read this Big Rinty is dying in Shepton Mallet prison. Big Rinty? You wouldn’t know of him unless you’d read Erwin James’ columns in the Guardian or his books. Big Rinty is one of the long-term prisoners with whom James became friends during the twenty years of his life sentence. Here’s James: Rinty […]
Gail’s marathon
I wonder if you’re following Gail Rubin’s thirty funerals in thirty days? I’m hooked. She’s on no. 3. For me, this is a social document and a celebration of the lives of ordinary people. For you? Find her blog here.
Zombie journalism
Here’s some nasty journalistic furystirring from the Daily Mail under the headline Councils to stockpile bodies to cut the costs of cremation Bodies will be stockpiled for cremation under new rules to cut costs and carbon emissions. Rather than being cremated straight after a funeral, corpses will be stored for days in coffins or body bags […]
Eulogy rides again!
Reports of the death of Eulogy magazine are exaggerated. A little while ago I was rung by its genial editor, Alfred Tong, and informed that the second issue would be available online only. It’s out now, and includes among all sorts of things a sprightly piece by Julian Litten on his preference for burial. Find it here.
Different cultures, different customs
Here’s how they do it in Swaziland: EZULWINI – The funeral of Ziggy Carvalho was turned into a ‘mini rally’ as mourners watched his friends showing off with their cars. This happened at KaBhelina yesterday morning during a short prayer held at his home. This was before his body was taken to the burial site […]
Thirty funerals in thirty days
Over in Albuquerque, Gail Rubin has set herself the task of attending and writing up thirty funerals in thirty days. She got under way on Saturday. It’s going to make for a very interesting social document. At this stage, of course, many of those whose funerals she will describe are as yet still alive…
Lovingly Managed responds to its critics and doubters
When I wrote this post I guessed what the responses were likely to be. The funeral industry does not like to be interloped. Catherine Corless of Lovingly Managed has posted the following comment and, for fear that you might miss it, I am re-posting it here: Well, we do seem to have ruffled a few […]
Letting go
Rhoda Partridge took up painting when she was 70. Now 90 she’s still hard at it. Her spirited life has also embraced scuba diving, gliding and ceramics. In an interview in this month’s Oldie magazine she is asked: Do you find that after 70 years you live in the shadow of death? She replies: Oh […]
Shovel-and-shoulder work
The words that follow are by Thomas Lynch, a hero to so many of us in the UK. (In the US there are those who reckon him paternalistic, but we don’t need to go into that. It’s complicated.) Funerals are about the living and the dead — the talk and the traffic between them … […]
Ghoul, calm and collected
For a death-averse people who shut their eyes tight to mortality, the Halloween look is not a good look. But children thrill to it; caring parents wickedly, gigglingly co-conspire. Much of the imagery is so graphically horrifying I’d have thought it would reduce children (and some adults) to lasting gibbering mental breakdown. But it doesn’t. May […]
