Muriel’s ashes
It was the Jubilee weekend and a year since we had all gathered around Muriel’s hospital bed as she told the Doctors that she wanted no more treatment, no interventions, no resuscitation. She told us she had had a wonderful life, she was ready to go, that she wanted to be cremated and she wanted her […]
RIP Andy
Tomorrow will see the funeral of Andy the police dog, who died on Tuesday in a tragic training accident. It will take place in the gym at the Elementary school in his home town of Vermilion, Ohio. Andy’s handler, Scott Holmes, said: “He was our only police dog, and he was great. He made a […]
Song for a baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-xmLD85M8o Evelyn found this – played in memory of a baby The morning cold and raining, dark before the dawn could come How long in twilight waiting longing for the rising sun ohoh ohoh Oh ooh You came like crashing thunder breaking through these walls of stone You came with wide eyed wonder into all […]
What I will and wont miss by Norah Ephron
Posted by Vale Writer and director Norah Ephron died this week. Called an artist of consolation, she is remembered for comedies like Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally, but also wrote screenplays for the more serious Silkwood, fiction and a huge number of books, articles and blog posts. In I Remember Nothing she left […]
Toad or lizard?
From Matthew Parris’ column in yesterday’s Times: “My sister … remarked lightly one evening that as men get old we turn into either lizards or toads: one or the other, there is no escape, no third option.” If you’re a man, which one are you turning into? Male readers only: are you turning into a […]
Thoughts of a funeralgoer
Posted by Lyra Mollington There was only one topic of conversation at our book club on Tuesday morning – apart from the book we were discussing, of course! Yes, it was the fascinating television documentary from the evening before – although we agreed that the whole thing had to be taken with a pinch of salt. […]
Fallout #2
From Broadcast here: Labour MPs have tabled an early day motion following True North’s Dispatches: Undercover Undertaker on Co-operative Funeralcare that aired earlier this week on Channel 4. The motion stated MPs were “shocked and disgusted” by the Channel 4 doc which showed the funeral care provider stored coffins containing bodies in warehouses on industrial […]
Fallout
I expect there will be a number of stories like this. This one’s from this is Gloucestershire and is about Glad Stockdale’s experience of a Midcounties Co-op funeral, which all came back to her when she watched Undercover Undertaker, of which this is Gloucestershire writes: The programme showed bodies piled up in a warehouse, instead […]
We know best
The funeral industry commissions very few surveys. When it does, they are about what bereaved people are doing, not what bereaved people want. These surveys are almost always self-serving and, if spun well, appeal to lazy journalists. Result: free advertising. This is something the GFG has taken up with broadsheet journalists to no effect. Why […]
An open letter to George Tinning, Managing Director, Co-operative Funeralcare
Dear Mr Tinning I am writing in the aftermath of Undercover Undertaker to proffer an olive branch. The Good Funeral Guide has attempted to talk to Funeralcare in the past and met with no reply. In the best interests of the bereaved, the cause we both have in common, I want you now to consider […]
