Day 771 in the Nanny June Care Home

The One With A Funeral And No Body.

Why didn't the skeleton go to the party? Because he had no body to go with. Obviously.

Dementia is almost as much of a taboo subject as death; even though death is an inevitable consequence of life. Nanny June is in fine form though, do not fear! However at some point there will need to be decisions made.

Immediately after someone dies there is this bizarre hiatus. A vacuum of life where time stands still while life moves on, and everything seems irrelevant and other worldly. Ironically this is when bureaucracy needs you most. Death generates so. much. paperwork.

The level of customer service from a funeral directors is (mostly) hugely underrated. The ones I have met are incredibly kind and sensitive people and cannot do enough to help. This week I went to the undertakers to introduce myself and make some enquiries. I know from my dad dying that funerals take almost as much planning as a wedding.

Nanny June had absolutely zero interest in making her wishes known and had a real and visceral hatred of hospitals, funerals and anything deathly. Giving the send off someone deserves when they really hated the idea is tricky but here's to the planning of the kindest, gentlest funerals in history.

Nanny June has always felt a strong connection to nature. She enjoyed walks in the country side with her friend Pat for many years. Due to displacement during WWII Nanny June had experience of growing up on a farm. One memory that has stuck longer than most, is from the days when hay was made. The smell of freshly cut hay, sunshine, men working, the itchy scratchy sensation, riding on the back of a tractor and trailer when there weren’t so many big fat plastic wrapped black bales, but lots of small stackable bales which took hours to collect and load by hand.

Today I went to visit a local natural burial site. It was so beautiful. The owner was a beautiful human being. So passionate to get everything right. The site has ash trees, a big oak tree and is a ‘working’ hay meadow. So there will be a tractor going over the ‘residents’ - but I was reassured it is only a small tractor. One of the residents also bequeathed his substantial collection of bees so there is also an apiary onsite! And they sell the honey. I cannot convey just how June that all is. I almost cried at how perfect it all was. I'll save my crying for another day though.