The GFG Blog
2022Aug
The Coroner’s Service (or lack of)
Fran Hall
Aug
31
No Comments
We recently heard from someone who is at their wits’ end. They are waiting for an inquest into their parent’s death. Their parent died on the Isle of Wight in May 2020. The coroner was involved, and an inquest is required. But here we are, 120 weeks on, and a
Direct cremation
Fran Hall
Aug
24
5 comments
We have a lot of thoughts about direct cremation. Mostly, we have questions. Particularly about the pricing. How are these ultra low costs for what is a labour-intensive service achieved? Who is carrying out the physical collection and care of the people who have died? Where are they taken to?
How much does cremation cost in 2022?
Fran Hall
Aug
15
3 comments
With well over 3/4 of British funerals now culminating in cremation, and with the relentless promotion of direct cremation on mainstream TV channels, we thought it was about time to look at the cost of being cremated in 2022. The Competition and Markets Authority’s Funeral Market Investigation Order 2021 mandated that all
What to wear to a funeral
Fran Hall
Aug
09
No Comments
Recent photographs of the former President Trump and his family solemnly lining the steps of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City, watching Ivana Trump’s $125,000 ‘golden hued casket’ as it was carried to the waiting hearse offer us absolute visual confirmation of what the Western world
Funeral plans – a bonfire of vanities
Fran Hall
Aug
04
1 comment
If you or a member of your family have taken out a pre-paid funeral plan, read on. Important information below! On Friday last week, the crowded funeral plan landscape suddenly became a little less bustling. Quite a lot less, actually. On 29th July 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority took on the regulation of
2022Jul
St. Margaret’s Hospice Funerals. It’s over.
Fran Hall
Jul
27
1 comment
CEO of St. Margaret’s Hospice Anne Lee with Howard Hodgson of Memoria Ltd at the launch of Hospice Funerals in 2017 It gives us no pleasure at all to report that the ill-fated venture embarked on by the CEO of St. Margaret’s Hospice in Somerset back in 2017 has come to
2022Mar
500 days
Fran Hall
Mar
02
1 comment
Oh my love. 500 days have passed. 500 days without you in my world. How have I got through these days? I remember as clear as if it were yesterday the moment that you died, the sudden knowledge that everything – everything had changed. Everything about that
2021Nov
Funeral Photography
Fran Hall
Nov
23
5 comments
Funeral photographer Rachel Wallace (Photo credit Louise Winter) On Sunday 22nd November 2021, something magical happened. As the sun rose, Natasha Bradshaw, the inspirational superintendent of Mortlake Crematorium opened the gates to Mortlake’s beautiful grounds, and a trickle of people started to arrive for a day that would
2021Oct
Standardised price lists for all
Fran Hall
Oct
11
No Comments
Regular readers of the GFG blog will know that we have been calling for transparency in the funeral sector for well over a decade. Last month, on 16th September, a seismic shift finally occurred when the Competition and Markets Authority’s Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021 finally came into effect.
2021Jul
Isolation
Fran Hall
Jul
16
1 comment
Photo credit: Rachel Wallace Photography Day 271. Almost nine months into this new existence. The last couple of weeks have been difficult. I’ve been feeling unwell, symptoms of a bad cold which are, apparently, also symptoms of someone double vaccinated who has contracted the Delta variant. A lateral flow
