Cremating Poppy: Oh, if only I had..!
Guest post by former GFG Director John Porter On 20th May 2023, our beloved Poppy was put to sleep. We knew this act of love, mercy and kindness was the right decision and it was handled with great sensitivity and compassion by our vet. Poppy was with us 13½ years and, unbeknown to me, I […]
Lonely Funerals: Compassionate Verses
It’s been a while since we posted on the GFG Blog, but this weekend, we heard about a project in Scotland that is too important not to share with our readers. Michael Hannah is an independent funeral celebrant based in Dundee. He has generously written this guest post for us. For many of us, the […]
The infamous Richard Sage
Currently going by the name Mark Kerbey, we have news about Richard Sage, serial fraudster notorious to readers of this blog. For more than three decades, this gentleman has been defrauding individuals and organisations, resulting in more than 40 counts of fraud and a number of stretches in prison. At Basildon Crown Court some four […]
The Coroner’s Service (or lack of)
We recently heard from someone who is at their wits’ end. They are waiting for an inquest into their parent’s death. Their parent died on the Isle of Wight in May 2020. The coroner was involved, and an inquest is required. But here we are, 120 weeks on, and a date for the inquest has […]
Direct cremation
We have a lot of thoughts about direct cremation. Mostly, we have questions. Particularly about the pricing. How are these ultra low costs for what is a labour-intensive service achieved? Who is carrying out the physical collection and care of the people who have died? Where are they taken to? Where are they kept until […]
How much does cremation cost in 2022?
With well over 3/4 of British funerals now culminating in cremation, and with the relentless promotion of direct cremation on mainstream TV channels, we thought it was about time to look at the cost of being cremated in 2022. The Competition and Markets Authority’s Funeral Market Investigation Order 2021 mandated that all crematoria must publish their prices, […]
What to wear to a funeral
Recent photographs of the former President Trump and his family solemnly lining the steps of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City, watching Ivana Trump’s $125,000 ‘golden hued casket’ as it was carried to the waiting hearse offer us absolute visual confirmation of what the Western world deems to be appropriate ‘attire’ […]
Funeral plans – a bonfire of vanities
If you or a member of your family have taken out a pre-paid funeral plan, read on. Important information below! On Friday last week, the crowded funeral plan landscape suddenly became a little less bustling. Quite a lot less, actually. On 29th July 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority took on the regulation of the funeral plan […]
St. Margaret’s Hospice Funerals. It’s over.
It gives us no pleasure at all to report that the ill-fated venture embarked on by the CEO of St. Margaret’s Hospice in Somerset back in 2017 has come to an end. A statement on the website was posted today, and today’s edition of the Somerset County Gazette confirmed an email that we received this morning telling us that […]
500 days
Oh my love. 500 days have passed. 500 days without you in my world. How have I got through these days? I remember as clear as if it were yesterday the moment that you died, the sudden knowledge that everything – everything had changed. Everything about that moment is vivid in my […]
