The GFG Blog
2010May
i-shrine
Charles
May
21
No Comments
A very good programme on BBC Radio 4 about online memorialisation on Facebook, dedicated memorial websites and YouTube. Features MuchLoved‘s Jon Davies, a GFG Hero. Well worth half an hour of your time. Catch it on Listen Again — but be sure to do so within the next seven days. Click!
Partial eclipse of the Moonies
Charles
May
21
1 comment
The Moonies, followers of that well-known oxymoron Sun Moon, want to create a one-acre natural burial ground in the village of Stanton Fitzwarren, near Swindon. It’s not just for Moonies; the villagers are welcome, too. The villagers aren’t happy, of course. The English are not natural-born embracers of change (or
That’s what friends are for
Charles
May
21
No Comments
A good funeral song in its own right, especially poignant when it was played at Jennyfer Spencer’s funeral last Tuesday. Find the lyric here.
Tarantara!
Charles
May
20
10 comments
The Good Funeral Guide is published today! Available from all good bookshops, one or two very bad ones and all the usual online suspects.
Carla
Charles
May
18
1 comment
Here’s the news I’ve been dreading and, if you’ve been following Carla’s blog, you will have been, too. In her own words: Carla Zilbersmith, born December 15, 1962, died today, May 17th, 2010. Carla Zilbersmith died in her home this afternoon of Lou Gherig’s disease, also known as ALS. Carla Zilbersmith
Greening grief
Charles
May
18
No Comments
Photo stolen from the Sentiment blog The GFG motored purposefully south yesterday afternoon to Chiltern Woodland Burial Park. It was a three-birds-with-one-stone mission: to have a look at this well-heeled natural burial ground; to hear the great Dr Bill Webster talk about grief; and to meet up with Louise from
Dig those stats
Charles
May
17
1 comment
I received this interesting insight into Dignity’s profitability the other day from a good friend of the GFG, Andrew Plume. I was mulling over some Dignity stats the other day. Much is made of 65,000 funerals having been carried out for year ending December 2009. Given that they merrily declare having
A funeral is a branding exercise
Charles
May
17
3 comments
“The woman seated next to me on the plane told me her name was Stefanie but that she went by Adventure Girl … Then Adventure Girl asked me what my brand was. No one had ever asked me that before.” Thus begins a quest by Joel Stein to find his
Funeral food – Kate Campbell
Charles
May
14
2 comments
AuntAunt Fidelia Brought the rolls With her Green bean casserole The widow Smith Down the street Dropped by a bowl Of butter beans Plastic cups And silverware Lime green Tupperware everywhere Pass the chicken Pass the pie We sure eat good When someone dies Funeral food It’s so good For
Nick Gandon on funeral costs
Charles
May
14
No Comments
Nick Gandon operates the UK’s first and, so far as I know, only dedicated direct cremation service. Here is the comment he left on this post from a few days ago, and which you might have missed. I first wrote about Nick here. When I started out in the world
