8 December 2010 – The Good Funeral Guide

Second hand truth

“God, this is awful,” I mutter under my breath to my cousin who is sitting beside me on the pew at the front of the chapel. The funeral celebrant, who had never met my mother, is reading the eulogy. On top of everything else, she has a monotonous voice and is droning on about someone I do not recognize, certainly not my mother.

So begins a blog by psychologist Jane Christmas.

My mother’s personality was so complex and her life so sad, and my sister and I had barely taken a breath to start thinking about what it meant to have lost her. The celebrant suggested we could tell her about my mother’s life and she would write it, so we agreed. It was a mistake. We should have written it and at least presented my mother accurately at her own funeral.

Read the whole post here.

Chirpy chirpy tweet tweet

I’ve taken to twittering. Not like a duck to water, you understand; you either get it or you don’t and I’m not sure that I do, so I’m not waving but bobbing. You follow someone doing something funereal and potentially interesting and chances are you get a torrent of repetitious, self-serving chimp-jabber. So having bobbed for a while I have now unfollowed not only the bores but also the glutinously mawkish. Most of them. Who wants to listen to people talking about themselves the whole time?

There’s potential in the twittersphere for a community of thanatophiles who inform and delight each other with news and views to flock together, so I’ll carry on chirping for a while and see how it goes. Apart from anything else it’s a good place to share news items that are too small to blog about.

Here, for example, are some of my yesterday’s tweets:

GoodFunerals Charles Cowling

Feed me up before I go-go. I’m never sure about the ethics of this sort of thing: http://bit.ly/hegjda

GoodFunerals Charles Cowling

Good piece on wonderfully mad William Price, father of cremation. His last words? Give me champagne! http://bit.ly/dToGjw

GoodFunerals Charles Cowling

John Hicklenton died at Dignitas. Amongst his final words: “MS you’ve met someone you shouldn’t have f***** with”.http://bit.ly/gjFCpH

GoodFunerals Charles Cowling

Funeral: A traditional grieving ceremony in which the family of the deceased mourns the loss of a $5,000 casket. http://bit.ly/e9uIcA

GoodFunerals Charles Cowling

I see Funeralcare’s offering £18K for a degree holding marketing person. Jayz, you’d have to be desperate. Tossers.http://bit.ly/gl6ZnK

GoodFunerals Charles Cowling

Anti-Westboro vet on stalking charge has his legs removed:http://bit.ly/eizihC

GoodFunerals Charles Cowling

“Leave the ‘big chains’ behind and find a smaller, family-owned service.” Got to be the best advice every time. http://bit.ly/dGQ1rk

There’s a fine line and a big difference between activity and distraction. I’ve yet to convince myself that twittering amounts to activity. You think? You tweet?