“Dispatches lifts the lid on the funeral industry. Using undercover filming, Jackie Long investigates what really happens to our loved ones when they die.”
Monday June 25 at 8.00pm. Channel 4.
In certain districts of Funeralworld, fear stalks the streets.
Cancel all other appointments.
From yesterday’s Guardian newspaper:
Everyone in Israel is talking about the British-American BBC comedy Episodes. Not that it is airing there, but the show has recently become famous for its disastrous use of freebie online translation.
In episode three, Merc Lapidus, one of the lead characters, attends the funeral of his father. The episode was shown in the UK several weeks ago and is airing in the US later this summer.The gravestone, as per Jewish tradition, is bilingual – the local vernacular, in this case English, along with Hebrew. But the entire Hebrew inscription is written backwards, starting with the last letter and working back to the first. The reason, of course, is that Hebrew runs in the opposite direction from English, from right to left. And it gets worse. If you go to the trouble of reading the text, you’ll discover that the man commemorated, a certain Yuhudi Penzel, has been “pickled at great expense”. This is what you get if you use Google Translate to render “dearly missed” into Hebrew. The blooper is now going viral in Israel.
Hat tip to SweetPea.
We get a steady trickle of phone calls here at the GFG from people who think they’ve got a brilliant product or service to offer the bereaved. Some have, some haven’t. All have already approached funeral directors in the expectation of whoops, backslapping and high fives. All, even the truly brilliant, have been received by more or less unanimous indifference flavoured with lofty disdain or total apathy. No surprises there.
Herein lies great opportunity for elite funeral directors with powers of discernment – those who read this blog, mostly. How great it must be for you to have such competitors.
We were excited to be rung up this morning by an artist called Moth. We find we like her a lot. Moth specialises in murals, and has recently discovered a passion for hand painting children’s coffins. Here’s what she says:
I cannot put right what surely must be one of the most terrible injustices a parent can ever experience – but I can attempt to make a difference – in offering a sensitive and heartfelt alternative to the anonymity of the small, plain white box that is offered to you to transport your precious little person on their final journey in this world. I feel strongly that the anonymity inflicted on babies who die makes it harder for parents to fully engage in the grieving process.
Moth listens sensitively and intuitively, then paints any picture or design parents choose on a wee Sunset coffin, which she prefers for its soft, tactile texture. She says, “It is my passionate desire to give you and your child a voice, and to allow you to live on, knowing that you have given your child a beautiful farewell.”
She’s done her research. She understands the time constraints. She charges according to how much time she spends. The Lily coffin, above, comes in at around £500, a price that is highly unlikely to enrich her.
Judge for yourself. Click on the photos to bring them up to full size.
Ring Moth on 01684 574980 / 07855867485
Email her: moth@lastlullaby.co.uk
Check out her website here.
Extracted from the Otago Daily Times. New Zealand:
A man who disrupted a Balclutha funeral, yelling vulgarities and causing distress and upset, has been remanded in custody.
Stephen John Hurring (59), of Balclutha, pleaded guilty to disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence at the Balclutha Memorial Hall.
Prosecutor Acting Sergeant Mike Gasson said about 700 mourners were at the funeral.
An intoxicated Hurring was standing in the hall’s entrance foyer about 2.10pm.
During proceedings, he became verbally abusive towards the dead person, yelling vulgarities and causing distress to mourners, including family.
Asked to leave, Hurring refused and caused a commotion, disrupting the funeral.
When restrained by an off-duty constable, Hurring lashed out.
Public defender Jo Turner said Hurring wished to apologise for his behaviour. The person who had died had been a close friend.