You saw it here first. Yeah, well okay, you first saw it here. Hayley’s coffin was, we can now reveal, made by Will Hunneybel and his team at Greenfield Creations.
As I write, (9.08) you could boil an egg on Will’s servers and the GFG coffins page is going bananas.
A good day for the empowered funeral shopper.
A minimalist funeral reported in the Leinster Express, 1914:
The funeral of the Rev. T. Pym Williamson, for 45 years vicar of Thelwell, near Warrington, was conducted in accordance with his desire that it should be marked by the utmost simplicity.
He wished for nothing more than what would be accorded to any of his parishioners, he said, and added: “Perhaps a hearse may be found a convenience, but a handcart covered by a pall is better to my way of thinking.”
The body was conveyed to the church on a handcart, followed by his six sons. The funeral ceremony was of the simplest character.
Posted by MC
I am not a new man, according to my wife. To qualify as someone who is even slightly in touch with his feminine side, I would have to empty the kitchen bin. Without being asked.
It’s not an especially good time to be a man. I knew we were in trouble when I saw the latest Southbank event being advertised. It’s called, BEING A MAN.
On a recent news item, someone said that on average two women a week are killed by a current or former male partner. Statistics on male violence in the UK and around the world make distressing reading. After watching Ross Kemp’s TV programme Extreme World about Papua New Guinea earlier this week, I fervently wished that I could have un-watched it. Men did not come out of it well. Even more tragically, nor did the women.
But in the UK, you’re far more likely to die from causes other than diseases (like suicide and road traffic accidents) if you’re a man. Chances are, if you’re attending the funeral of your spouse, you’re a woman.
According to my wife, this means that (yet again) she’s going to be left with all the organising to do. Even though I’ve told her countless times to put me out with the rubbish.
Which is why I’m disappointed with the Coronation Street writers. Not because I’m a funeral celebrant (although Suzie the scary humanist did make me cringe) but because I’m a man.
Now Roy strikes me as a good male role model: hard-working, loyal and kind. Not that I’ve ever watched this programme until recently, or any soap for that matter. I’m watching for professional reasons only. And I’m hoping that Roy is going to get a grip and do us proud.
C’mon Roy! Hayley’s given you a list of instructions. What more do you want?
The Individual Funeral Company is a young business in Oxford run by Lucy Jane. At one time she rode motorbike hearses for Paul Sinclair.
Lucy recently took on a new member of staff, ‘paw-bearer’ Joplin. Joplin is a French bulldog and has made a great hit with passers-by, many of who have hurtled through the door to say hello without realising they were entering an undertaker’s.
More photos of great windows welcome. Send em in!
Believe it or not, this beautiful undertaker’s window is full of the iconography of death. Heaven on Earth is in the city of Bristol and is run by Paula Rainey-Crofts and Simon Durgan. It is one of the pioneer ‘alternative’ undertakers. (There has to be a better term than ‘alternative’, what is it?)
Urbi et orbi = ‘to the city and to the world’. Nice touch, revealing, perhaps, a Catholic influence and an elegant sense of humour. These words customarily preface the Pope’s Easter and Christmas blessings to the massed faithful in St Peter’s Square.