If you come to my funeral - Don’t forget your wellies….
Not even death lets you off the hook on global warming and climate change. The debate will still be valid as your nearest and dearest plan how to dispose of your earthly remains. A carbon neutral death?
The demand for "natural burials" has been growing and the Natural Death Centre, an organisation which claims to help improve the quality of dying, is predicting an increase from 6.5% to 12% of all burials in the UK by 2010.
Burial plots are expensive and becoming rare in some areas. In Southgate a burial plot can fetch £3,000. Scary amounts of money! Then there’s the ecological impact of burying the dead. A body, fully clothed, in hardwood (probably not sustainable), buried in the ground. With a nice tidy lawn over the top. Cremation anyone?
The side effect [of increasing numbers of cremations] has been an increase in damaging mercury emissions in the air from crematoria caused by the melting of dental fillings.
Some crematoria have installed filters to prevent this. But aren’t they sterile, unfriendly places? Yes, I know, it’s a funeral. It’s not meant to be a happy place. But isn’t a funeral just another Rite of Passage in our journey through life? Can we not celebrate the life lived rather than the ending if it?
I don’t want sterile and unfriendly. I have an image of people standing on the grass, chatting away, sharing their memories. Yes some tears shed but laughter too, and plenty of hugs. Then a few years later those same people can come see me still and sit in the shade of the tree planted there, smell the spring flowers and hear the gentle buzz of honey bees.
Ray Ward seems to share this image.
His plan is eventually to turn Herongate Woods back into a natural woodland. And with that in mind, he insists bodies are buried at a depth of 4′6" - too shallow, he says, for another coffin to be loaded on top.
By planting trees and encouraging native bulbs, he hopes Herongate will look indistinguishable from any normal wood.
Herongate sounds wonderful. But wellies may be needed, depending on the weather.
Death is hard for those who grieve. Society doesn’t really allow time for the process to take place. Grief is different for each of us and we each work through it at our own pace. Perhaps a gentler, friendlier, more celebratory funeral would work for some of us. It would for me.
Bring your wellies …..
