A good funeral, to quote Tony Walter, Emeritus Professor of Death Studies at the University of Bath, should be “intensely and creatively personal; it should involve as many of the mourners as possible, cherish the individual who died and weave together the survivors in bonds of love.” Mike’s definitely fitted that description. A husband and father as … Continue Reading
In the matter of life and death, football will always take precedence.
Ronnie wanted lots of music for his funeral but what he DIDN’T want was for me to talk about his life.
It’s time to rewrite the Book of Common Prayer.
Wullie’s story was a time capsule from an era that’s almost gone from our memories.
People love humanist funerals for their compassion, their honesty and their humour: they choose them for what they include, not what they exclude.
My role is to speak for the bereaved, and the more accurately I do that, the better the ceremony. Having multiple contributions from family and friends writing from wherever in the world they happen to be allows me to create a richly textured, multi-faceted portrait.
How David Bowie and the coronavirus are changing the way we deal with death
What do we mean when we say someone’s a character? It’s a word with many nuances, but I can think of no-one about whom it is more appropriate than my neighbour of twenty years, Bill Purves. I live in a mews and when I first moved here twenty years ago, there were still two working … Continue Reading
At Jewish funerals, the traditional greeting to mourners is “I wish you a long life”. I can see where they’re coming from, but a long life is not always a blessing.Here in Britain, one in five 80 year olds already suffers from dementia. The Alzheimer’s Society has just published a report which suggests that if current trends continue, we … Continue Reading