The GFG Blog

2014May

New charity to help pay for funerals of babies and children

Charles
May 15
4 comments
  A new charity which will help bereaved parents with the cost of a baby or child’s funeral is being officially launched on Wednesday, July 23, with a special one-day seminar and exhibition at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Child Funeral Charity (CFC), whose patron is well-known author and
Categories:  Children, Children and funerals

Why are men killing themselves?

Charles
May 14
No Comments
In an article in a recent Spectator magazine, Elizabeth Hardman reflects on the problems that beset males today: The idea of women having a rotten deal has become so firmly entrenched in British public life that we have become blind to the problem emerging for the boys. Hardman gives evidence, including
Categories:  suicide

Let’s hear it for the killer anecdote

Charles
May 13
No Comments
From The Times obituary for Walter Walsh: Walter Walsh killed people for a living. He was exceptionally good at it. But unlike many in his line of work, he never shot anyone who didn’t need shooting. Both as an FBI agent in the 1930s and as a marine officer during the
Categories:  eulogy

Zombied

Charles
May 13
11 comments
The Birmingham Post reports the takeover by Laurel of 2 undertakers, WH Scott and Earl & Co. Scott’s is a business with no website but masses of barnacles heritage and a noble lineage stretching back over five generations. We trust that the present generation, the one that brought the proud dynasty to an end by
Categories:  family funeral directors, LM Funerals

Celebrating transition with ritual

Charles
May 13
No Comments
Rituals for Our Lives A Rites of Passage Autumn School led by Gilly Adams and Sue Gill Monday, September 29th – Friday, October 3rd 2014 Halsway Manor, National Centre for the Folk Arts, Halsway Lane, Nr. Crowcombe, Somerset TA4 4BD  It takes courage to mark key moments of change in
Categories:  Ritual

Why go there?

Charles
May 12
5 comments
  “If we want the deaths our lives deserve, we need to start talking about it,” advises a Times leader today. Yes, it’s Dying Matters Awareness week and all Funeralworld is a-flutter with wheezes to “start the conversation” and encourage people to make a will, jot down their end-of-life wishes
Categories:  Attitudes to death, Death; Good death, dying, End-of-life issues

Doing them justice

Charles
May 07
6 comments
Over on the Mindfulness and Mortality blog, in a discussion about funeral eulogies, Gloriamundi asks a good question: “Why do we seem to feel the need to sum up a life and pass judgement on it?” He goes on: “The torrent of unqualified praise that falls on someone who has
Categories:  celebrants, eulogy

Where to be

Charles
May 07
3 comments
    Dying Matters Awareness Week kicks off next Monday. Over at DeadSocial, James Norris is getting his awareness-raising in early. He’s holding another of his pop-up shops — venue: 69 Camden High Street, London. On Tuesday, there was an art exhibition. Yesterday, the Natural Death Centre did its thing
Categories:  Uncategorised

Many Flowers in Carshalton (part 2)

Charles
May 05
3 comments
Another day in the life of the Vintage Lorry Hearse. Often David Hall, of Vintage Lorry Funerals, is asked what happens if it rains during a funeral. Although under the deck of the 1950 Leyland Beaver there is a slide out drawer with a purpose built translucent sheet, this has
Categories:  Hearses

No-win

Charles
May 04
3 comments
“In the UK, the size and number of cremators at a crematorium are selected to enable the ‘duty’ to be accomplished within a normal working day and so the cremator is used for about 8 hours per day and then shut down until the next day. This is not an
Categories:  cremation, crematoria