Scattering Ashes

The comedian Sasha Baron Cohen has been up to his old tricks, dressed as his latest comedy creation, The Dictator, and accompanied by two rather attractive female bodyguards. He was interviewed holding what he claimed was the cremation urn containing the ashes of his friend Kim Jong-il – the late North Korean leader.
He said “I love it here because it gives me an opportunity to bring my dear friend and doubles tennis partner, Kim Jong-il,”
“It was his dream to come to the Oscars and to be sprinkled over the red carpet and over Halle Berry’s chest.”
He then pretended to fumble with the urn tipping the ashes over interviewer’s jacket.
I think it is actually quite funny, and again another example of ashes used in humour, even the cremation urn had a nice bit of detail – a picture of the late North Korean leader on the front, nice.
Here is the clip entitled: 2012 Oscars: Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Ryan Seacrest

A very sad story from Hull, Christopher Addler died in police custody and was buried in 2000, after this his niece died and her wishes were to have her ashes scattered on her uncle’s grave. It turns out that the body buried is likely to be that of a lady named Grace Kamara. This all appears be the result of a mortuary mix up.

The body has been exhumed for testing and the intension after a positive ID it will be returned to the plot in which it has been resting for the past 11 years.

The brother of Christopher Alder was due to attend the exhumation at Northern Cemetery, Hull. He wished to oversee the delicate operation to remove the top turf containing Laura’s ashes, which will then be placed on Christopher’s new plot.

He said: “This is something that just has to be done.

“I want to be there to see the top turf removed, which will then be placed on Christopher’s grave. It will be difficult to watch.

“We promised before she died that we would scatter her ashes on her uncle’s grave.

“For ten years that promise has not been fulfilled. How much more difficult can anything be?”

After the tests have been carried out and, if they confirm the body is that of Grace, her family and friends would like her to be reburied back in the plot she has been in for the past 11 years. This is not a usual request, so the licence governing the exhumation is likely to need amending.

The process means the cemtary will need to be sectioned off for a whole night and the article said the removal of the soil from the grave will commence at midnight.

Poor family first to lose a brother is such circumstances, then to lose your daughter, to find that the brother has not been laid to rest and you scattered your daughter’s ashes over a stranger’s grave. As he said: How much more difficult can anything be?

Two questions: Why do they have to start the exhumation at midnight, why not half past eleven? It is not a Victorian melodrama for goodness sake, are they intending on having an organist in the background hammering Bach’s Toccata and Fugue! Secondly where did Grace Kamara’s friends and family think she was until now? Have they been trying to track her down? Surely the mortuary must have know where she should have been. It can’t be as it seems, with these clippings you don’t get whole story…

The plenty of films about marriage, numerous ones on birth and some on funerals and the strange part about it is (and my thinking has not been base on any scientific approach) these tend to be dark comedies or aimed to pluck at heart strings. What is also significant, to my rather subjective mind, is that the ones on death tend to focus around a burial. If I ask you to cast a mental image I would think about 90% tend to have the big mahogany coffin, being buried in the rain.  Is this not a bit odd if most of us are cremated – I guess burial with all the trimmings tends to be a bit more cinematic, maybe? But what about scattering?

Being connected to the all thing scattering, people often like to pass snippets my way, have seen x or y. Recently someone asked me what I thought of the ‘The Way’ the film with Martin Sheen, when I professed never to have seen of it, I got that ‘look’ meaning ‘Pah! Thought you were the expert’. So I did some thinking, some watching and some digging for films about scattering ashes. So here you go:

• The Way – this is actually a really inspirational story about friends, family and the challenges of the modern world. Martin Sheen plays the part of Tom a doctor who goes to collect the ashes of his son who died in an accident while walking the Camino de Santiago, also known as or The Way of Saint James. Rather than return home, Tom decides to take on the historical pilgrimage to honour his son’s desire to finish the journey. What Tom didn’t realise is that after meeting characters along the journey which will impact him in terms of the way he lives his life. The four people he hooks up with along “The Way,” are an unlikely group who create a firm bond. And through the film Tom considers the unresolved relationship with his son and he discovers the difference between “the life we live and the life we choose.”  http://theway-themovie.com/

• Last Orders – I really liked this film and whilst it has not got the grand vistas of the ‘The Way’ it is small and powerful. The plot is around a London butcher – Jack Dodd who enjoyed a pint with his mates. When he died his ‘Last Orders’ were that his ashes should be scattered in the sea at Margate. The movie follows his mates, Ray, Lenny and Vic and his son Vince as they journey to the sea with the ashes. Along the way, the threads of their lives, their loves and their disappointments are woven together in their memories of Jack and his wife Amy (whom I don’t recall we ever see!)

• Last stop for Paul – Again a different angle – friends who have lost a mate before his time and the two central characters Charlie and Cliff decide they want to go to the Full Moon party in Thailand. As they go from country to country they meet a wide variety of odd people and have mad adventures sprinkling the ashes of their friend Paul along the journey. http://www.laststopforpaul.com/.

• The Pond – This one I haven’t seen. So it is a bit of an outside bet. A heartbroken young woman sets about scattering her husband’s ashes on the pond in an apple orchard they both loved. But the waters of the pond hold a secret, and when a stranger appears out of the blue, her world is thrown into chaos and she must choose between sacrifice and oblivion. Ok Ok this sound like a bit of a pup and ashes content a ruse, but it did win a number of awards. I  will update the post once I have watched it … http://www.thepondmovie.com/about.html

• Lastly and the premise is not about solely scattering ashes, but the final poignant since is. The film is called When Did You Last See Your Father, the scene at the end which has Colin Firth firstly licking his ash covered finger! Then he with his three sisters are shown scattering handfuls of ash – they don’t seem to mind, in fact they are quite happy about, the ash getting all over them. This director is tugging furiously away at your heart strings with children playing and a rare balmy warm English summer evening. However, I have to say I was pleased by the way he challenged convention about our contact with ashes, ordinarily the objective it to have no physical contact with them at all. But, there are no rules, no conventions that must be adhered to, it is about celebrating the life of a loved one and doing it in a manner the works for you.

In conclusion, the films (again haven’t seen The Pond) tend to be life affirming, celebration, reflective – good, just so.  And if you have watched they and you want to rant or praise them – feel free.

Creamtion urn wins award

When people (well I suppose me) think of design awards you may think of an office chair back pain or corkscrew that that works through telekinesis. You may not think of a Cremation Urn. Well the Memento urn, a biodegradable urn used for water burial, has won the prestigious Red Dot Design award.

The Memento beat competition from over 4400 entrants from 60 countries. It has a beautiful simplistic form, handcrafted from antique moulds from non-toxic, food-grade, recycled paper, the Memento allows families to participate in the ceremony by placing handwritten notes and message through the top of the urn prior to placing it in sea.

What the Red Dot judges liked about the urn:

• It has an elegant and natural shape set to address a target audience without specifically relating to any particular cultural or religion
• It is designed to float briefly then sink to the bottom and as it is made pressed recycled paper is will biodegrade naturally over time
• Personal messages can written to the deceased can be written on handmade memento cards provide with the urn then posted into the urn
• The smooth surface can be written upon or painted.

The Red Dot award introduced in 1955, has become the world’s largest and most distinguished design competition. Red Dot signifies ‘belonging to the best in design and business’.

To buy the urn – Memento Cremation Urn

A thief has been given a six month prison sentence for selling brass memorial plaque for scrap metal. Nathan Hallsworth, twenty-six, admitted handling stolen goods but said he had not known what they were – yeah right!

The court was told the significant distress caused to the families by the theft and the Recorder Richard Woolfall warned others involved also faced jail. He told Leeds crown court: “Anyone involved in the theft and handling of memorial plaques can expect a significant custodial sentence.

“Theft of items with such a high sentimental value is a very serious crime.”

The 170 plaques, worth £25,000, were taken from were taken from the ­remembrance garden at St Mary’s Church in Mirfield, West Yorks.

What must the thief have thought? It’s only brass it doesn’t mean anything, or did he just not care. How low is that? I am pleased that he got a custodial sentence which I think reflect the nature of the crime. However I doubt it will somehow give him a moral awakening!

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2012/02/01/man-who-sold-cremation-memorial-plaques-stolen-from-churchyard-is-jailed-115875-23729706/#ixzz1liWp6mcS

News to me, but apparently Up Helly Aa is the largest fire festival in Europe. It takes place in Lerwick, Shetland, on the last Tuesday in January every year.

There are hundreds of people in Viking attire parading through the streets, which ends up with a Viking longboat being set alight (the call is it a Galley). This is followed with dances and performances throughout Lerwick. And general revelry one may assume!

This community event looks like a belta. And when one finishes it time to start preparing for the next! So indeed you have missed 2012s, but I am sure if you asked nicely they will get you involved for next years?

The whole thing looks like a massive labour of love.  Forty-five ‘Jarl Squads’ each decides on the character that they wish to portray. They make suits, create and practice a performance for the big day. The town even declares the next day a public holiday to help them to recover!

They haven’t approached us for our Viking long boat urn yet – but you never know!

This is the official website http://www.uphellyaa.org/

And this is our version! Viking Long Boat Urn

Viking longboat urn

Here is a short piece from the Ormskirk and Skelmersdale Advertiser.

The former green keeper from the Comrades Club Bowling club voiced concerns over the moving of a war memorial from the bowling club to a new location. His issues were more than just the moving of the structure, it was the fact that many ex-servicemen and women – war heroes as he put it, had their ashes scattered around the memorial.

Harry Halsall looked after the greens for 20 years and was a member for more than four decades. He told the paper that “funeral directors used to contact him to say a family wanted to scatter ashes around the back of the memorial and onto the green.” He went onto say “I’m disappointed the memorial is being moved. The bowling green at the Comrades Club was the Wembley of the North and crowds used to be six deep.”

The club closed down in 2009 and the site is likely to be sold for residential use. The spokesman and club trustee said that there is to be a ceremony for rededicating the war memorial and that the he would speak to the council to ask that the ground where the ashes where spread should be relocated too. He went onto say “I will ask the council to allow the scattering of ashes on the new site.”

This is not uncommon thing to have happened, places or objects we think are permanent often aren’t. The relocated site won’t hold the resonance for those who are mourning, the symbolic moving of the soil will go someway, but there is so much more to it than that. Perhaps can’t be helped, it is just sad. I can just imagine during the clubs glory days its members could never see a time when it would fade.

For those of you that are considering where to scatter it may add one more strand of doubt in your mind, this problem I feel is greater in an urban setting. With the inexorable demand for new land to build the urban fringes and unprotect gaps within our towns and cities will become under increasing pressure.

So what advice to give? Either consider somewhere where this can’t happen e.g. a beach. Somewhere protected under law. Or maybe scatter over the water, where firstly it will not be impacted by development and secondly the exact spot is of less of an issue.

http://www.osadvertiser.co.uk/news/ormskirk-news/2012/01/26/comrades-club-s-former-greenkeeper-s-concern-over-fate-of-soldiers-ashes-after-war-memorial-move-80904-30195535/