Book: The Dead Good Funerals Book

My mum's funeral yesterday was not a religious affair. She was not a religious person. I wrote the words for it myself and gave a talk about her life and the things she enjoyed. I included things her friends and other family members had written about her and I included some time for people to put spring flowers on her coffin as they remembered her themselves.

One of the books that inspired me when I was putting the funeral service together was The Dead Good Funerals Book,by Sue Gill and John Fox, which I read on a friend's recommendation. And I would recommend the book to anyone else trying to decide what kind of funeral service they should hold for a loved one - particularly if they want to create a ceremony that is a little out of the ordinary.

The Dead Good Funerals Book is not a collection of funeral services that you can use off straight from its pages, instead it discusses different types of funerals with examples and offers environmentally friendly alternatives to some things that are taken for granted, such as expensive wooden coffins and embalming.

It explains the legal requirements for funerals, which are not nearly as restrictive as is commonly believed. Funerals don't need to follow a formulaic approach and can be beautiful ways of honouring a person's life rather than the gloomy vestige of a Victorian tradition they so often are.

But it does offer a lot of examples that can provide inspiration. Interspersed with all the practical advice are pages of poems that would be perfect to include in a funeral service.

Links and previous posts
The Dead Good Funerals Book (Dead Good Guides)
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/03/my-mother-has-died.html