Dead Shorts part 2

I like these short prompts, because I find they've prompted me - or even amused me. Hope they work for you.


"It was never a great bird-puller at school." (Undertaking was the family business.)

"(At a funeral) we had to release two doves. So as they've gone up, out of nowhere this sparrowhawk slams into one of them and kills it. You shouldn't laugh, but I think even the family found that funny."
John T Harris, T Cribb and son, Undertakers in the East End of London


"People today are frightened by silence. There's a kind of inner loneliness. I think it's an agitated age. That's a comment, not a criticism."
Joyce and Ivan Fox, Crazy Coffins.


"The absence of a body is always a lot more difficult to deal with. If a place crashes, for example, it can be a help to visit the site. Seeing a body can be very helpful to the grieving process."

"For older people, the death of a parent can often seem unbelievable. They think their parents are immortal."
Joy Caplin, Cruse bereavement counsellor

"Funeral directors have a lot of dedication. I did it once. It's a difficult job; a messy one"

"You get advice about sex and drugs at school, but never death. People aren't taught and they haven't a clue."

"People shouldn't think they're being cheapskates when it comes to a funeral. I used to say to people, 'you can have that expensive coffin if you want, but we're only going to burn it."
Howard Greenoff runs Kingston Cemetery

"People try to find magical solutions when they are bereaved. A bereaved woman I knew married the best friend of her former husband just three months after her husband died."

"In my teens I was an ardent atheist. But after working in hospices I came into contact with strong religious beliefs and I am less judgemental. I don't have an easy answer but I respect that there are different ways of thinking."
Colin Murray Parkes, consultant psychiatrist at two hospices

All the above from "Get Dead," by Jamie Oliver, which as well as having fascinating mini-interviews with these and other people, is also full of remarkable facts.