Publicizing mortality

Today I celebrated the midweek Eucharist at St John 's with a group of nine of the regular faithful, and visited the wound clinic for a dressing and to collect supplies to cover the coming Bank Holiday weekend. Stocks are low, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to pick up what was lacking today. How difficult it must be for the community nursing team to keep up with continuing, but always variable needs of scores of patients all year round.

I received an email from Coles of Rumney, one of the local funeral companies, inviting me to attend a coffee morning at their recently opened funeral home in Birchgrove. It's to launch their 'Bereavement Hub', as they call it. I'm quite amused at the way the word 'Hub' has supplanted the word 'Centre' in many social contexts in which people interact with each other for whatever reason. "Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold .." said William Yeats in the last century. Will hubs do any better, I wonder?

The invitations is timed to coincide with 'Dying Matters Awareness Week', something I've not heard of before. Its website speaks in these terms of an association of interested stakeholders:

'We have over 13,000 members, and are actively enlisting those that are committed to supporting changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours around death and dying. Joining is free, and our members include community groups, healthcare bodies, private individuals and groups representing a range of faiths.'

I imagine this group will include funeral directors, bereavement counsellors, people involved in terminal illness care, perhaps legal professionals involved with will writing and the administration of legacies and estates. As people now live much longer, some prefer not to think about mortality until it's inescapable. Sudden or early death can precipitate next of kin into crisis with scant resources for coping, not knowing who to turn to. Public educational awareness raising to change attitudes has to be a good thing.

Coles's funeral company are making a conscious effort consistent with their mission statement as a business "... not just to care for the dead, but to care for those affected by death. And to help everyone prepare for it." Bravo. Perhaps when I was working full time I would have made the effort to attend, and do some networking. While I'm always happy to help out, I'm content now to leave the networking to others.