I just wondered if anyone else saw this progamme on BBC1 last night, exploring attitudes to death and dying. I had to force myself to watch, to a certain degree, but it was informative and enlightening. Amongst other things, he went behind the scenes at a crematorium and watched the whole process, he attended a funeral, talked to a terminally ill man who was dying of cancer, visited an embalmer, visited a coffin maker. All was intended to de-mystify the dying process and remove the modern day taboos still surrounding the subject. While I am sure the programme is not for everyone, I am glad I watched it. Produced in association with the Open University, there is more information here www3.open.ac.uk/media/fullstory.aspx?id=16979
An interesting, and sort of related publication, is a book called:
‘Get Dead’ by a Jamie Oliver (not THE Jamie Oliver, another one).
The ISBN book number is 1-905548-25-5 and it’s published by ‘Friday Books’.
It’s full of practical advice (such as which religions permit cremation, how to arrange a burial at sea, information about wills and inheritance tax) and interesting statistics, such as the Top Ten Funeral Songs.
It also includes brief interviews with priests, obituaries editors, florists, barristers, pathologists, etc; all the people who have some kind of regular involvement with death.
It’s fascinating and useful. Well worth investing in a copy, as not only do many of us understandably regularly contemplate our ends on this forum, but also because we also have to cope with the deaths of others.
I missed this prog but I will use (or rather my family will) the same undertakers that I used for my Mum last year. I was reassured that they have excellent ‘storage’ facilities which means practically no embalming…I hate the idea of being embalmed…not that I’d know about it…but my Mum wasn’t embalmed and on viewing her body the day before her funeral which was a week and a half after her death she looked just like my Mum…reassuringly.
Hi Jenny, I sadly missed it- although like u I would have had to have watched it alone with a huge box of Kleenex. I think it’s not so much the stigma of dying, it’s more so the feeling of. ‘missing out’ not being able to pass on my pearls of wit and and wisdom, see my nephews grow into men - travel & explore new places with my husband etc… I’ve had a couple of weird death-related dreams recently … For eg) I said to the ‘crematorium man’ as I was laid in the coffin - you are going to put me out 1st aren’t u? (meaning aneaethetising me) so I was still alive?! Then another one was me shouting “Boo” to my sister as I was laid in my coffin in the Chapel of Rest - what does THIS mean? X