I have just been to a funeral.......
It was a Co-Op one and I was told off!
However, the cortege arrived nearly 30 minutes late to the church and the person sitting next to me was wondering if the FD had managed to get them out of the house.
My reply was that if that was the case, they hadn't done their job correctly in the preceeding days - to support the family and prepare them for the funeral.
I was smartly told that it wasnt appropriate, moreover, that it wasn't a competition....
Little does the layman appreciate, that it is, indeed, always a 'competition' and that every step/movement/gesture and facial expression of FD and bearers is to be scrutinised by opposing funeral professionals........every time, no matter what/where/whom. It is a matter of instinct and of great interest. Perfectly natural behaviour!!!
Not only that, minute details such as the very way in which flowers are placed on top of the coffin can generate endless discussion.
I know - you will point out that I am very anti Co-Op - so would look for problems and issues regardless!
The delay was apparently due to traffic - not local....so no family crisis on the doorstep...but hey - here I am in my posh clothes writing this, instead of going to the reception.
About Me
- Antler
- I am a Thanatologist - with an MA in Religion: The Rhetoric and Rituals of Death and a BA (Hons)in Death Loss and Palliative Care. I have been accepted by The University of Winchester, to do a PhD...In death! I am also a qualified Embalmer and a French-Polisher - I entered the funeral business by polishing mother's burial box. I have a diploma in foot healthcare another as a Practitioner of NLP. ...eccentric - so they say! Really? Was I like that before I embalmed my Granny?
3 comments:
Can you help explain what a Co-op is?
Was it a fitting send off otherwise?
It was a lovely funeral......
If you want to know about the Co-Op, read Charles Cowling's Good Funeral Guide Blog........I think it covers a few ideas!!!
Antler, you are quite right: I am not a Co-op fan for, I hope, all the right reasons. And, like you, I acknowledge that there are some very good branches out there. But, taking 'em all in all, the verdict's got to be: Could do better, must do better.
You give us a fascinating insight into funeral people's obsession with the minutiae of presentation -- at a time when the people whom it is all for are pretty much blinded by grief. But detail is what it's all about. It is an obsession I approve of so long as it is driven by selflessness -- by putting families first.
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