There’s a strong feeling among funeralistas that making money out of death is wrong, naff, reprehensible. This is good news for consumers. I’ve met a good many vocation-driven undertakers who could charge far more than they do but they won’t because they think it’s… wrong. Ironically, even the greediest, porkiest
There’s been quite a lot of nattering in the papers lately about the society-shaming rise in the number of what they like to call pauper funerals. Yes, shock horror, more and more people are dying without leaving enough money to pay for their funeral. So, even in this day and
Here’s a bit of fun. Over in New York there’s an exhibition in the Merchant’s House Museum of post mortem photographs from the Burns Archive. It’s an interesting exhibition space: According to historic preservation rules the installation had to be creatively planned. No photos could be hung on the walls or
The prospect of Promession, the brainchild of Susanne Wiighe-Masak, has been around for a few years now. It offers an extremely attractive alternative to cremation. It is clean. It is gentle. Above all, it enables us to return to the earth in an environmentally useful way. If you want to
From the Cumbria News and Star: In a bizarre 35-second sequence, recorded by a CCTV camera in the dead of night at The Wolfe pub in Little Dockray, a ball of light is seen descending through the ceiling, its outline pulsating as it moves around. At one point, part of
If you catch me reflecting too often on the travails of too-long life, this story may act as an antidote. It reminds me of a crisis faced by Winston Churchill. I can only paraphrase. An aide greeted him with the news, one morning, that a member of the cabinet had been
I was struck by the sweetness of this in the Victoria Times Colonist (Deaths and Funerals): “Life provides a puzzle for us when we outlive our friends, when we forget our memories, and when the new technologies pass us by, but we are ever loved when we remember our manners
Here’s a charming story from Wales: The family of a frugal farm contractor who died aged 87 paid tribute to him by building his hearse out of scrap. For just £60 relatives of William Royden John built the funeral cart which transported him to St James’ Church in Rudry from
