28 January 2013 – The Good Funeral Guide

Spooky spoilsport

28 January 2013

Charles

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Categories: Ghosts

As Sean Eddleston lay dying he told his partner, Sharon Grant, that he wanted her never to date anyone else. Since then, his ghost has frightened off every one of her suitors. The Sun newspaper takes up the story:

Five years since Sean’s death, Sharon, now 44, claims to have had three relationships dashed by her ex appearing from beyond the grave to give her fellas the frights of their lives.

She says he PULLED the hair of one lover, PINNED her to the bed so she couldn’t get up and answer the door to the same fella — and even APPEARED next to him on the sofa.

Sharon is now coming to terms with the fact Sean may always interfere in her relationships.

She says: “A friend of mine told me to get my place exorcised but I’m not sure I want to. Although Sean has been a pain, I do like having him around. A part of him is still here and I find that comforting.

“Some nights I’ll sit down on my own in the front room and chat to him. I know he’s there, I can feel his presence. I was never interested in ghosts and ghouls before Sean died and had no opinion on whether they existed. Now I know they do.

“I tell Sean I need that physical relationship with another man but it doesn’t mean I don’t still love him. I can be there for hours just chatting. I only hope Sean is listening.

“But he needs to let me get on with my life.”

Full story in The Sun here.

Another no-frills funeral service

28 January 2013

Charles

32 Comments

Categories: funeral cost, funeral directors

There was a big splash in Saturday’s Daily Mail about a budget funeral newcomer to Funeralworld, Cremdirect. Set up in June 2012, Cremdirect has already performed 70 funerals at an all-in fixed price of £1750 and serves Manchester, Buxton and Macclesfield and environs.

We called up the founder, Mark Roebuck, and put to him the sorts of questions anyone would want to know the answers to.

Mark, your background is the motor trade. What experience have you got of undertaking? Mark replied that he has a little, and he employs three staff with around 100 years’ experience between them.

We asked Mark about his mortuary. It’s in a unit at Compstall Mill on the outskirts of Stockport, next to a country park. There’s a good and proper refrigeration unit – no coldroom and racking. There’s even a small chapel of rest for those who change their mind and decide they want to visit – though the website makes clear that Cremdirect does not offer ‘viewing facilities’. He encourages families who want to visit to do so at the hospital mortuary, where Cremdirect can leave bodies until a day or so before the funeral.

Clients can make arrangements either in the office at Compstall or, as usually happens, at their homes.

We asked Mark about his price and wondered if it might not be a bit on the high side by comparison with similar providers (eg Powell and Family Direct at £1497 and Richard Fearnley at £1397.) He puts it down to the cremation fee in his area – around £600. Another factor may be his refusal to use foil coffins. He’ll only use veneer. He doesn’t want his funerals to look cheap. He even has a Daimler hearse, so he’s clearly a bit of a funeral romantic.

Mark has been greeted warmly and supportively by the undertaking community in Manchester and has found local suppliers delighted to serve him. Or not, as the case may be.

Tomorrow, he’s on the Jeremy Vine show on R2. He sounded a bit apprehensive. This is a lot of publicity for a wee startup that’s not doing much different from a number of other firms serving the fuss-free market. Mark hasn’t courted any of this publicity; it just seems to have happened to him in the random way the media works.

Actuarially, we’re all dying younger — just — perhaps

28 January 2013

Charles

2 Comments

Categories: Longevity

From The Actuary, 24 January 2013:

The total number of deaths in England and Wales in 2012 was 499,000 – 15,000 more than in 2011 and in excess of the total for any of the three previous years.

Mortality worsened by 1% over last year for the combined male and female population – after a 3.8% improvement in 2011.

Men’s mortality improved by 0.2% and women’s worsened by 2%. This was significantly less than the average annual improvements of 2.8% for men and 2.2% for women seen over the 10 years to 2011.

Read the whole article here.

‘I am expecting to kill myself’

28 January 2013

Charles

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Categories: Uncategorised

Writing in the BBC News Magazine, writer Will Self has news for you. Here are some extracts:

This may seem rather shocking to you but I am expecting to kill myself.

Really I am, and if you’ll hear me out I hope to at least nudge society in the direction of considering suicide acceptable when – and this is the important point – the alternative is a slow painful death from a terminal illness.

Such is the brilliance of contemporary medical science, at least in our privileged realm, that we can be kept breathing long past the point where our existence is anything save miserable – miserable for us, miserable for our loved ones, and miserable for those who have been appointed by either by the state or a private health plan to minister unto us.

I’ve observed what might be termed a “creeping normalcy” in the existence of the terminally ill – with each successive stage of greater incapacity, indignity and discomfort somehow managing to be incorporated into the daily go-round.

[We] cannot hope to understand how to have a good life, unless we also ready ourselves for a good death.

Read it all here.

Hat-tip: Jed