I did a funeral at the Greenwood Burial Ground at Farnham, near Saxmundham in Suffolk, today. It's unlike the other green burial grounds near here.Most of the trees are already established and the graves are dug between them. In other green burial sites, the trees are planted on the graves in the autumn, so a new-ish site can look rather bare for a few years.
I used to think that doing it this way, with the graves so close to the trees, might damage them, but the gravedigger said it doesn't harm them. It's like pruning the trees, only underground, and they grow new roots. I'm not convinced but haven't noticed any dying off.
2 comments:
“ To talk at all interestingly about death is inevitably to talk about life.”
Without realizing it, most of us have planned what we hope to do in our lives, married with 2.4 children, not forgetting the perfect white Labrador. There is a possibility that some women will never even get married, however each girl knows practically what their wedding will be like. Or even the subject of winning the lottery, we all imagine what we are going to spend it on, even though the chances are we will never win the lottery.
Why do we plan things that are not necessarily going to happen? But when it comes to more serious stuff we ignore and push it to the back of our minds?
It was only until a friend past away earlier this year I began to look at funerals in a different way. This friend was only my age, I couldn’t understand it.
It was a shock to my system, as I had never crossed my mind that one of my friends at only 20 years old would pass away. To me I have always imagined you die when your are in your 80’s and peacefully in your sleep. Is this because I am incredibly naïve or I ignore the realities that happen in life?
I deeply interested in this and have began researching into people planning their own funerals. Has anyone thought of designing their own funeral? It doesn't have to be traditional at all, anything from having an ice-cream truck there or where you want to be buried, music played, how you want to be remembered, would you create a video to played at the service? Would you have a theme? OR do you find creating your own funeral is bad, if so why??
I hoping to find interesting case studies..... anyone that is slight interested in what i have written PLEASE contact me at createyourfuneral@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks.
If you'd read more of my blog, whoever you are, you'd have seen that I don't recommend planning your own funeral except in the barest details.
I've been asked to talk to or visit people who were planning their funerals, some without any expectation of an immediate demise, others who were terminally ill, and have always told them to keep it simple. You might pay for it in advance, through a funeral plan - though we careful about this, as some firms aren't so good - or just choose some music and a reading or two. Otherwise, leave it to those left behind to arrange things.
My body will hopefully be used for medical education, and it's up to my family what they do about a memorial meetings, or whatever. I'll be dead, so it won't bother me what they do.
Post a Comment