The GFG Blog

2021Jan

ICYMI

Fran Hall
Jan 05
3 comments
  It would be forgivable to have missed the muted announcement of the publication of the Competition and Markets Authority’s Funeral Markets Investigation Final Report. The culmination of a major review of the funeral market in the United Kingdom which began in June 2018, the Final Report is a weighty
Categories:  CMA Market Investigation, Co-operative Funeralcare, Dignity, The future of funerals

2020Dec

Making sense. Finding patterns

Fran Hall
Dec 23
3 comments
Time is slowly drifting by. It’s 12 weeks since we married. Nine weeks since Steve died. Seven weeks since his beautiful funeral. The days come and go, shorter and shorter, darker and darker, until Monday’s shortest day, the Winter Solstice. Yule, the ancient festival marking the victory of light over
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief

Unexpected people

Fran Hall
Dec 12
1 comment
‘Communitree’ – artwork created by young offenders at HMP Cookham Wood Steve and I came across an exhibition of work by young offenders while we were in Anglesey in 2018 and this piece caught my eye. One of the things that has surprised me the most over the last months is
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief

So many layers of grief

Fran Hall
Dec 07
4 comments
Almost two months have passed. Seven weeks since Steve died. Seven weeks of rolling waves of emotions, of reflection and remembering, interspersed among the detritus of the life that was before. One of the things that resonates strongly with me as I walk every day is just how much grief
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief

Stuff

Fran Hall
Dec 02
2 comments
In amongst all the swirling newness of life without Steve, there is also an extraordinary amount of stuff that sits silently waiting to be attended to. The stuff that he accumulated in his life. Mostly, it’s his clothes. Clothes are hard. Clothes are memories, of where they were bought and
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief

2020Nov

The sun keeps rising

Fran Hall
Nov 27
7 comments
I took this photo on November 4th, the morning after Steve’s funeral. I was out walking before sunrise, on my own with my thoughts. As the inky blackness of the night sky gradually changed and lightened, and the orange tint of sunrise spread across the horizon, there was something so
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief

Absolute Beginner

Fran Hall
Nov 21
8 comments
A personal story of grief There is a beautiful little book by Baptist minister Richard Littledale, called Postcards from the Land of Grief which my friend Clare mentioned to me a few weeks after Steve died. I recognise that description, with a jolt of familiarity – ‘the land of grief’.
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief

Stop all the clocks

Fran Hall
Nov 07
4 comments
    Time. Time and space and dates and days. Right now, I am finding these measures all bent out of shape. My perception is warped by profound events that I have experienced since the last post I wrote for the blog, in September.  But I can see a thread
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief, death and funerals

2020Sep

Choosing a headstone – advice and inspiration

Fran Hall
Sep 14
No Comments
  Stone carver Fergus Wessel and his wife Hannah from Stoneletters have just published a beautiful new book called Headstones – Advice and Inspiration.  The book is being sold to raise money for Maggie’s Centre, Oxford, and, in our opinion, it should be on the bookshelves of every funeral director
Categories:  Books, Headstones, Memorialising

2020Aug

Finally!!

Fran Hall
Aug 13
4 comments
  The Competition and Markets Authority has today published their Provisional Decision Report in the latest stage of their Funerals Market Investigation. It’s a long read – 472 pages in fact, with appendices being published next week, but you can read the short summary version here. In essence, the CMA
Categories:  CMA Market Investigation, The future of funerals
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