Archive: October 2011

Has TV gone too far this time?

24 October 2011
Charles
No comments
Categories: Attitudes to dead bodies, Attitudes to death, Embalming

Posted by Vale

That’s the headline on a Mail online story about tonight’s Channel 4 documentary about mummification.

In it a Devon taxi driver – Alan Bills – is mummified following, as closely as possible, ancient Egyptian practices. Alan died in January after suffering from lung cancer and wanted to take part in the experiment in part at least because of his grandchildren. He said

“Perhaps this would give them an insight into what their granddad was like, I don’t know.

“They’ll most probably tell somebody at school that my granddad’s a pharaoh. That’s my legacy I suppose.”

There’s a good preview on the BBC website. The show isn’t simply prurient interest or sensationalism either. Scientists are hoping to study the mummification and the effect on the decomposition of the body as part of research into alternatives to formaldehyde.

The Mail’s, always keen to find fresh sticks to beat Channel 4 and the BBC with, states:

“The broadcaster looks set to find itself at the centre of another taste row after agreeing to air the macabre documentary”.

But will it? Is death or the treatment of dead bodies such a taboo subject for broadcasters these days? Or is it only violence that justifies publicity. The Mail – with its article and photographs of Gadhafi’s corpse seems to think so.
The documentary’s on at 9.00 tonight if you are interested.

The chaos of meaning

21 October 2011
Charles
3 Comments
Categories: Art and death, ashes, memorialisation

We have just received the following press release: 

In early 2011, Jimmy Edmonds’ son Joshua was killed in a road accident in SE Asia. 

RELEASED is a photographic essay and a personal response to the tragedy of his son’s death. Intended for publication both as an exhibition and as a book, the project features a mix of Edmonds’ powerful photography and personal poetry.

The title refers to the label on the container holding Joshua’s ashes on which the word “released” appeared.  This becomes the starting point for a personal journey in which Edmonds navigates a way through his own grief to an exploration of photography itself. The “chaos of meaning” he finds lying at the heart of photography mirrors almost exactly his own confusion surrounding the loss of his son.

The result is a work of remarkable depth and drama. 

As indeed it is. Here’s what one of our regular reader, James Showers, thought of it: “I literally gasped at the way you worked with the ashes – treating them with such delicacy, as beauty not as leftovers.”

You can read the entire book fullscreen online here.  You can find the Facebook page here.

Habeas corpse

20 October 2011
Charles
No comments
Categories: funeral customs, funerals in other cultures

Funeral arrangements for many Brits must take into account the sometimes violently conflicting wishes, needs and loyalties of the various members of blended families. Compromise can sometimes be hard to reach, the more so when one party sets out to hijack the funeral and do it their way.

It’s worse for Ghanaians. There, it’s the extended family that often hijacks the funeral. Journalist Elizabeth Ohene explains:

A friend of mine has had a traumatic experience and this has brought the subject of death forcibly to the fore for me.

When a Ghanaian dies, the body belongs to the family – that is the legal position.

The definition of family, in this case, does not include a spouse or children.

So, do not go looking in the dictionary, where a family is defined as “a group of people who are related to each other, especially a mother, a father and children”.

In matters of death in Ghana, a family refers to the extended family into which you are born – no matter how long ago and it does not include the family you have created.

So, you could be married for 50 years and the two of you might discuss what arrangements you want for your funerals when the time comes.

You might even write down these wishes but, unfortunately, when your wife dies, you will discover that 50 years of marriage counts for nothing.

Once your wife becomes a corpse, you have no say in where or even when she will be buried. If her family decides, for example, to take her body to the village she had never sat foot in, you will be able to do very little about it.
Wrath of in-laws

And if you think you are a beloved child and your parents have told you how they want their funerals conducted, you will discover that your word counts for nothing – unless, of course, you can find some people to intercede on your behalf and you can “buy” the funeral from the family.

The process of “buying” the rights to the funeral includes giving drinks and the paying of various fines for imaginary wrongdoings over your lifetime.

Custom demands that children bury their parent – in other words, they must pay the bills for the funeral but they have no authority over the body.

If your spouse dies and you happen to be not very popular with your in-laws, then better get resigned to the fact that while you mourn the loss of your partner, you will be accused of having killed him or her.

I have seen it and it is not a pleasant experience.

My friend’s husband died. Their children wanted their father buried after three weeks, but his family wanted his body kept for four months to enable relatives scattered around the four corners of the globe to attend the funeral.

We coaxed, we begged, we paid fines for all the years the children had not been to the village, but all to no avail – the body belongs to the family and they took it away.

This is an everyday occurrence in Ghana and if you think you can avoid it, let me tell you the story of a former chief justice who left strict instructions about what should happen when he dies.

He wanted to be buried within two weeks of his death and he did not want a state funeral.

Three weeks after he died, his family came to formally announce his death to the president and then added most helpfully that they had prayed and set aside the man’s wishes and the president should feel free to accord a state funeral.

The man got a state funeral some six weeks after his death.

If that can happen to a chief justice, it is obvious there is no point in me leaving any instructions, but just in case anybody cares, I want to be cremated within a week.

Not that I plan on going any time soon.

Source.

Mellified man and the wonder of Wikipedia

20 October 2011
Charles
No comments
Categories: Death; Good death, Embalming, Humour

Posted by Vale

Wikipedia – that glorious monument to collaboration and, sometimes, hearsay – has some marvellously strange pages.

One of my favourites is the Mellified man. This is claimed to be an ancient process of preserving bodies through use of honey.Li, a Chinese pharmacologist reports that,

“some elderly men in Arabia, nearing the end of their lives, would submit themselves to a process of mummification in honey to create a healing confection. This process differed from a simple body donation because of the aspect of self-sacrifice; the mellification process would ideally start before death. The donor would stop eating any food other than honey, going as far as to bathe in the substance. Shortly, his feces (and even his sweat, according to legend) would consist of honey. When this diet finally proved fatal, the donor’s body would be placed in a stone coffin filled with honey. After a century or so, the contents would have turned into a sort of confection reputedly capable of healing broken limbs and other ailments. This confection would then be carefully sold in street markets as a hard to find item with a hefty price.”

Who knows, in this age of innovation in the disposal of dead bodies, (and a cash strapped NHS) it might catch on again.

It’s clear though, from other articles, that we have become a good deal less imaginative about death and dying. There’s another page that simply lists unusual deaths.

It’s worth a look for the sheer variety of deaths listed. There’s more roasting than you might imagine including being roasted alive in brazen bulls. A disturbing image, I would have thought, for stock marketeers in these troubled times. Then there’s the politician Draco who, in 620 BC, was smothered to death by gifts of cloaks showered upon him by appreciative citizens. There’s got to be a metaphor there for the risks all politicians face if they of accept too many gifts.

My favourite though is the Stoic philosopher, Chryssipus, who died of laughter after giving his donkey wine then seeing it attempt to eat figs.

They really knew how to live – and die – in those days.

Death with dignity

19 October 2011
Charles
No comments
Categories: Death; Good death, self-deliverance

Posted by Charles

When Meg Holmes was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2009 her husband Andrew started a blog so that he could update friends about her condition.

Meg died on 1 October. The following post describes her death.

My wife Meg died on the morning of Saturday October 1st in the loving company of her brother, sister, son, daughter and husband.

Suffering from a disease that robs one of intellect and dignity, she had the option, as a Washington resident, to choose the time of her death. She used the provisions of Washington’s “Death with Dignity” Act to hasten her death, while she was still able to converse with and understand her family members. (Oregon has long had a very similar “Death with Dignity” act, Vermont and Massachusetts are considering one).

Her family gathered on Friday and spent the day with her. She was much more alert and animated than of late and visited with each of us. Despite knowing that her death was the next day, we all slept well that night (I slept much better than for many weeks), showing us that we were prepared for her passing.

Social workers (she met privately with one from hospice and one from Swedish Hospital to affirm her decision) and the volunteer from Compassion and Choices Washington all remarked on her readiness (and that she had not been ready the previous week).

The volunteer from “Compassion and Choices Washington” showed immense skill and empathy in helping Meg and in caring for us. 

Meg died peacefully and quickly, with no signs of discomfort. It was a remarkable end to a long struggle, and released Meg from what we all knew could be a long, distressing, undignified and inevitable end. Our preparations, the company of relatives, Meg’s peaceful passing and the knowledge of her command of the situation all served to make her passing much easier for us all. 

Find Andrew’s blog here.

Grateful thanks to the excellent Death With Dignity blog for alerting me to this. Find it here.

The real thing

18 October 2011
Charles
No comments
Categories: Memorial service

Gail Rubin is now on Day 19 of her 30 funerals in 30 days. Over on her The Family Plot blog she is delighting her many fans with a full account of each as it happens. The appeal of what she is doing is broad. She is compiling an important social document, an account of funerary practice in our time in the context of US cultural traditions. More compellingly, in our opinion, she is celebrating the lives of ordinary people. 

Yesterday she attended a memorial event which we want you to know about. It was for Bert Nordgren. Here are some extracts from her report: 

Though Bert Norgorden’s only living relative is his sister, a family of friends in Albuquerque gathered at the Elena Gallegos Open Space area for a memorial gathering and potluck lunch. 

Herbert “Bert” Norgorden was remembered for many things: his love of herbs and teaching about their healing powers; an accomplished self-taught flutist; a talented photographer of plants, flowers and nature; a great cook and teacher; and a warm, wonderful man.

The celebration started with musician and singer Gene Corbin providing a powerful a cappella version of “Amazing Grace.” Bert and Gene had made lots of music together over the years. 

About 35 people were in attendance. Toward the end, all raised their glasses of liquid – whether goats milk (a favorite of Bert’s), lemonade, iced tea or champagne. Marcia Landau said, “To Bert and to all of us. Thank you for coming out today. He lives on in our hearts.” Everyone then enjoyed the food brought for the potluck lunch.

Find Gail’s blog here and catch Day 19 as well. 

Is this the most tasteless competition of all time?

18 October 2011
Charles
1 Comment
Categories: Attitudes to death

Over at Theaodeadpool.com they have an annual competition. The idea is to guess who will die in the next year (they’ve got to be famous enough to merit a newspaper obituary). Editorially, it is GFG policy to present you with everything that’s going on out there. Personally, we’re squirming more than somewhat. 

Here is an abridged version of the rules:

Send us 40 names. People you think will die (none of this pass away bullshit) in 2011 and get an obituary in one of the many fine news outlets that still produce obituaries. 

If someone on your list dies before the year ends, I will write to you and ask for a new name. 

People on death row are eligible if they a) die from a cause other than execution or b) their level of celebrity is such that their passing would have been newsworthy even before their crime and/or conviction or c) their crime or some element of their trial, conviction or incarceration is newsworthy enough that they have wide name recognition. Saddam Hussein was a valid pick under “b.” Ted Bundy and Timothy McVeigh would have been valid picks under “c.” Ordinary murderers are not acceptable. In many different ways.

There is no entry fee. There is a prize for first, however. Thanks to Mark in Maine, you will win Moxie Soda, generally two bottles. Some think this makes second place more desirable. If you win, you must be gracious and thank him, even as you’re spilling it down the drain.

After each hit, Bill, Brad or I, or a guest updater, will write either a respectful or irreverent obit and post it on alt dot obituaries with the relevant scoring update. 

There’s more to it than being the luckiest guesser. There’s also a scoring system. You get more points for a young person than you do for an older person. There are also bonus points — you’ll need to check this all out — here. 

Updates are recorded on the alt.obituaries Google Group, together with a well-written and respectful obituary. 

Views?

Isle of the Dead

17 October 2011
Charles
No comments
Categories: Art and death

This concert will be a fantastic interweaving of myth, music and magic telling the story of the ancient Sumerian Goddess Inanna and her descent to the underworld to aid her suffering sister Erešhkigal. In leaving her realm of the heavens to face the darkness of the underworldfrom which there is no return, she faces death, sacrifice and a loss of innocence. It mirrors our own personal journeys of life into loss, suffering and shadow, but ultimately wisdom, redemption and mastery. In creating the myth as theatre the audience is invited to invoke their own stories and experiences.

Jane Flood has been a professional storyteller since 1990 and has a word hoard of over 300 traditional stories. She was commissioned to craft the myth of Inanna by the Festival at the Edge in 2002 and has been developing it ever since. She has collected and performed stories all over the world including Nepal, East Africa and South America. Her present work is mostly landscape based and is exploring the connections between people and place and the stories we tell that make sense of how and where we live.

bellAcappella is one of the leading chamber choirs of the South West and has received rave reviews for its performances since its founding in 2008. Singing songs from Georgian polyphony to gospel, their heartfelt enthusiasm and dedication to excellence continues to enthral new audiences. Led by Director Basira Ward they will be performing some sumptuous modern masterpieces by Dubra, Tavener and Whitacre alongside Baroque classic, Purcell’s funeral sentences.

Quatre Voix is a vocal quartet of professional singers who will sing early renaissance polyphony.

Sponsored by green fuse Funeral Directors, 7 High Street, Totnes tel: 01803 840779

ICAHD is a non-violent, direct-action organisation established in 1997 to resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories.

The Good Funeral Guide
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