Care in Funerals Casebook

Alcohol dependence | Attending funerals | Care and respect of dead bodies | Care and support for bereaved people | Celebrants and officiants – practices, challenges and quality of service | Children and funerals | COVID-19 pandemic circumstances | Crowdsourcing funerals | Culture and funerals (see Religious and cultural considerations) | Death management – policy and planning | Direct cremation | Disenfranchised (and entitled) grief | Environmental considerations | Eulogies | Family and funerals | Funeral costs, funeral poverty | Funeral directors – practices, challenges and quality of service | Livestreaming of funerals | Mourners | Online funerals (see Livestreaming of funerals) | Place of burial, cremation or scattering of ashes | Religious and cultural considerations | Respect – speaking well of the dead | Social discrimination | Visiting or viewing the body of a deceased person

Alcohol dependence

Cases: Amanda’s funeral

Commentaries: (Amanda’s funeral) – Speaking well of the dead; (Amanda’s funeral) – Celebrants and eulogies

Attending funerals

Cases: Jill’s funeral; Max’s funeral; Michael’s funeral; Sean’s funeral

Commentaries: (Jill’s funeral) – Mourning as a family and community practice: a Jewish perspective; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships; (Michael’s funeral) – Deciding between in-person and online attendance at funerals; (Michael’s funeral) – Bereavement and employment; (Michael’s funeral) – An African-Caribbean perspective; (Sean’s funeral) – A right to visit the deceased?

Care and respect of dead bodies (see also Respect – speaking well of the dead)

Cases: Aidan’s funeral; Bronwyn’s funeral; Hamza’s funeral; Jo’s experience in the mortuary

Commentaries: (Aidan’s funeral) –  Restricted service provision and care in communication; (Aidan’s funeral) – Betwixt and between; (Bronwyn’s funeral) – Taking care behind the scenes; (Bronwyn’s funeral) –  To tell or not to tell?; (Hamza’s funeral) – An introduction to ritual care of the dead body in Islam, Judaism and Hinduism; (Hamza’s funeral) – Preparing a body for burial: a Jewish perspective; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – The wrong of disrespecting the dead; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – Where’s the harm?; (Sean’s funeral) – When a body does not look good

Care and support for bereaved people

Cases: Hamza’s funeral

Commentaries: (Aidan’s funeral) – “That’s just the way it is”; (Amanda’s funeral) – Speaking well of the dead;  (Beanie’s funeral) – Beyond balloons – acting when many things matter;  (Bronwyn’s funeral) –  To tell or not to tell?; (Jill’s funeral) – Mourning as a family and community practice: a Jewish perspective; (Hamza’s funeral) – Improving care in funerals: learning from international experience; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – Where’s the harm?; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships;(Michael’s funeral) – Bereavement and employment; (Michael’s funeral) – An African-Caribbean perspective; (Sean’s funeral) – When a body does not look good

Celebrants and officiants – practices, challenges and quality of service

Cases: Amanda’s funeral; Hamza’s funeral; Michael’s funeral; Oonagh’s funeral

Commentaries: (Amanda’s funeral) – Celebrants and eulogies; (Beanie’s funeral) – Beyond balloons – acting when many things matter;(Max’s funeral) – Funerals and the perpetuation of social stigma; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships

Children and funerals

Cases: Amanda’s funeral; Beanie’s funeral

Commentaries: (Amanda’s funeral) – Speaking well of the dead; (Amanda’s funeral) – Celebrants and eulogies; (Beanie’s funeral) – Beyond balloons – acting when many things matter;

COVID-19 pandemic circumstances

Cases: Aidan’s funeral; Bronwyn’s funeral; Hamza’s funeral; Jo’s experience in the mortuary; Michael’s funeral

Commentaries: (Aidan’s funeral) – Restricted service provision and care in communication; (Aidan’s funeral) – Betwixt and between; (Bronwyn’s funeral) – Taking care behind the scenes; (Hamza’s funeral) – Improving care in funerals: learning from international experience; (Hamza’s funeral) – Preparing a body for burial: a Jewish perspective; (Jill’s funeral) – Arranging a funeral, what burden on whom?; (Jill’s funeral) – Mourning as a family and community practice: a Jewish perspective; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – The wrong of disrespecting the dead;  (Oonagh’s funeral) – Diversity within a religion: reflections on Oonagh’s Funeral from a Jewish perspective;

Crowdsourcing funerals

Cases: Doug’s funeral

Commentaries: (Doug’s funeral) – Organising funerals when money is short; (Doug’s funeral) – Crowdfunding funerals: helping who, helping how?

Death management – policy and planning

Commentaries: (Bronwyn’s funeral) – Taking care behind the scenes; (Hamza’s funeral) – Improving care in funerals: learning from international experience; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Scattering ashes: a Hindu perspective

Direct cremation

Cases: Jill’s funeral

Commentaries: (Jill’s funeral) – Arranging a funeral, what burden on whom?; (Jill’s funeral) – Mourning as a family and community practice: a Jewish perspective

Disenfranchised (and entitled) grief

Cases: Max’s funeral; Sean’s funeral

Commentaries: (Max’s funeral) – Funerals and the perpetuation of social stigma; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships; (Michael’s funeral) – Bereavement and employment; (Sean’s funeral) – A right to visit the deceased?

Environmental considerations

Cases: Beanie’s funeral

Commentaries: (Beanie’s funeral) – Beyond balloons – acting when many things matter; (Beanie’s funeral) – Planet loving or greenwashing?; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Scattering ashes: a Hindu perspective

Eulogies

Cases: Amanda’s funeral; Max’s funeral

Commentaries: (Amanda’s funeral) – Speaking well of the dead; (Amanda’s funeral) – Celebrants and eulogies; (Doug’s funeral) – Crowdfunding funerals: helping who, helping how?; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships;

Family and funerals

Cases: Amanda’s funeral; Beanie’s funeral; Jill’s funeral; Max’s funeral; Michael’s funeral; Oonagh’s funeral

Commentaries: (Aidan’s funeral) – “That’s just the way it is”;  (Beanie’s funeral) – Beyond balloons – acting when many things matter; (Jill’s funeral) – Arranging a funeral, what burden on whom?; (Max’s funeral) – Funerals and the perpetuation of social stigma; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships; (Michael’s funeral) – Deciding between in-person and online attendance at funerals; (Michael’s funeral) – An African-Caribbean perspective;  (Oonagh’s funeral) – Diversity within a religion: reflections on Oonagh’s Funeral from a Jewish perspective; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Navigating competing values and suggestions

Funeral costs, funeral poverty

Cases: Aidan’s funeral; Doug’s funeral; Jill’s funeral

Commentaries: (Doug’s funeral) – Organising funerals when money is short; (Jill’s funeral) – Arranging a funeral, what burden on whom?; (Doug’s funeral) – Crowdfunding funerals: helping who, helping how?

Funeral directors – practices, challenges and quality of service

Cases: Aidan’s funeral; Bronwyn’s funeral; Jo’s experience in the mortuary; Sean’s funeral

Commentaries: (Aidan’s funeral) – Restricted service provision and care in communication; (Aidan’s funeral) – Betwixt and between; (Beanie’s funeral) – Beyond balloons – acting when many things matter; (Bronwyn’s funeral) – Taking care behind the scenes; (Bronwyn’s funeral) – To tell or not to tell?; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – The wrong of disrespecting the dead; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – Where’s the harm?; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships; (Sean’s funeral) – A right to visit the deceased?; (Sean’s funeral) – When a body does not look good

Livestreaming of funerals

Cases: Michael’s funeral

Commentaries: (Michael’s funeral) – Deciding between in-person and online attendance at funerals

Mourners (see also Family and funerals)

Cases: Max’s funeral; Sean’s funeral

Commentaries: (Jill’s funeral) – Mourning as a family and community practice: a Jewish perspective; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships; (Michael’s funeral) – Bereavement and employment; (Michael’s funeral) – An African-Caribbean perspective

Place of burial, cremation or scattering of ashes

Cases: Oonagh’s funeral

Commentaries:  (Oonagh’s funeral) – Diversity within a religion: reflections on Oonagh’s Funeral from a Jewish perspective; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Navigating competing values and suggestions; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Scattering ashes: a Hindu perspective

Religious and cultural considerations

Cases: Hamza’s funeral (Islam); Oonagh’s funeral (Catholicism)

Commentaries: (Amanda’s funeral) – Speaking well of the dead; (Hamza’s funeral) – An introduction to ritual care of the dead body in Islam, Judaism and Hinduism; (Hamza’s funeral) – Improving care in funerals: learning from international experience; (Hamza’s funeral) – Preparing a body for burial: a Jewish perspective; (Jill’s funeral) – Mourning as a family and community practice: a Jewish perspective; (Jo’s experience) – Where’s the harm?; (Michael’s funeral) – An African-Caribbean perspective; (Oonagh’s funeral)  – Diversity within a religion: reflections on Oonagh’s Funeral from a Jewish perspective; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Navigating competing values and suggestions; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Scattering ashes: a Hindu perspective

Respect – speaking well of the dead

Cases: Amanda’s funeral; Jo’s experience in the mortuary

Commentaries: (Aidan’s funeral) – Restricted service provision and care in communication; (Aidan’s funeral) – Betwixt and between; (Amanda’s funeral) – Speaking well of the dead; (Amanda’s funeral) – Celebrants and eulogies; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – The wrong of disrespecting the dead; (Jo’s experience in the mortuary) – Where’s the harm?

Social discrimination

Cases: Amanda’s funeral; Max’s funeral

Commentaries: (Amanda’s funeral) – Celebrants and eulogies; (Max’s funeral) – Funerals and the perpetuation of social stigma; (Max’s funeral) – Acknowledging and grieving the loss of relationships; (Oonagh’s funeral) – Scattering ashes: a Hindu perspective

Visiting or viewing the body of a deceased person

Cases: Aidan’s funeral; Jill’s funeral; Sean’s funeral

Commentaries: (Bronwyn’s funeral) – Taking care behind the scenes; (Sean’s funeral) – A right to visit the deceased?; (Sean’s funeral) – When a body does not look good

The Care in Funerals casebook draws on findings from  the Care in Funerals project. The project was conducted by a research team  based at the University of Aberdeen. We aimed to understand how death rites and ceremonies  were disrupted and adapted during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to learn more about what matters in funeral provision and why by listening to people’s experiences. 

We interviewed (a) people who had been bereaved during the pandemic, (b) funeral directors and people who provide burials or cremations, and (c) religious and non-religious funeral officiants.  We asked about their experiences of funerals in the pandemic and about the idea of funerals as ways in which people show care for the dead and bereaved.

We included people of different genders, ages (18 to 75+ years) and religious and ethnic backgrounds, from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  In total, 68 people spoke to us in depth between March 2020 and March 2022.  

We learned a lot from what people told us. You can find a short summary of the findings here . We are writing academic papers that look at particular topics in more depth. We will add links to these below  as they are published. 

The Care in Funerals project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of the UKRI rapid response to COVID-19.  
 

Casebook Editors:

Vikki Entwistle, Arnar Arnason, Paul Kefford, Jennie Riley

Case Writing Team:

Vikki Entwistle, Paul Kefford, Jennie Riley

Care in Funerals Research Team:

Arnar Arnason, Rebecca Crozier, Vikki Entwistle (Principal Investigator), Paul Kefford, Louise Locock, Paolo Maccagno, Abi Pattenden, Laura Pusey, Jennie Riley Ed Thornton

Care in Funerals Guest Commentary Contributors:

Sofia Allana, Ruth Bickerton, Heather L Munro, Nawal Prinja, Halina Suwalowska, Teck Chuan Voo

Additional peer reviewers:

Sofia Allana, Heather Munro, Mohamed Omer, Nawal Prinja

In the sections below, the Care in Funerals Research Team introduce themselves first. Short biographical notes are then provided for Guest Commentary Contributors.

The Care in Funerals Research Team

Abi Pattenden

As a working funeral director, I have seen first-hand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on funerals themselves; on bereaved people arranging and participating in them; and on colleagues across the funeral service sector. The effects have been wide-ranging and it is very important to me that we learn lessons from this difficult period. I have been delighted to contribute to the Care in Funerals project and the development of this Casebook. I hope that stakeholders in future funerals will find it helpful.

Arnar Árnason

I teach in the anthropology department at the University of Aberdeen. I have been engaged in research on death and grief for a long time and have carried out fieldwork in the North East of England, Japan, Scotland and Iceland. My contributions to this project have included the sharing of insights from the anthropology of death and the anthropology of emotion. It has been a huge privilege to work on this important, timely and truly interdisciplinary project.

Ed Thornton

I worked on the Care in Funerals project until October 2021 while I was a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. I brought questions and insights from the history of philosophy, considering how thinkers from previous generations have attempted to work through some of life’s big questions and putting their ideas into dialogue with present concerns in order to help us make sense of what’s going on around us.

Jennie Riley

I joined the University of Aberdeen as a research fellow on the Care in Funerals project. My background is in Theology and Religious Studies, with particular interests in contemporary British religion, healthcare and deathcare. I hosted many of the interviews and have led analyses particularly of experiences and concerns relating to care of the bodies of people who have died, and different ways of attending or contributing to funerals and death rites, including via the livestreaming and recording of funerals.

Louise Locock

I am a qualitative social science researcher interested in personal experience of health and illness; patient-centred quality improvement and co-design; and patient and family involvement in research and care. A major recent focus of my work has been how we can better use different types of personal experience data to improve care. My interest in the Care in Funerals project was partly prompted following the death of a friend very early in the pandemic. In addition to contributing methodological expertise, I have enjoyed discussing the development of analyses and considering how ideas about ‘care’ from health service contexts connect to those in funeral provision.

Laura D Pusey

My work involves providing guidance and support for individuals or families navigating end of life stages. I am a funeral arranger and I perform ceremonies as a funeral celebrant. As a clinical hypnotherapist, I also focus on matters pertaining solely to dying, death and grief within group and individual grief coaching and therapy. Alongside my work with Cruse and Mind, I am the author of two death related workbooks: “My Life’s Tapestry” and “Tapestries of Grief”. My passion lies with the creation of platforms that showcase fellow Death Care Practitioners and service providers of and for the African and Caribbean communities, in order to address the vast underrepresentation that currently exists within the funeral industry. I have been delighted to contribute to this project to that end, as well as facilitate reflections on the social, emotional, mental, and practical aspects of death and grief that are so often overlooked.

Paolo Maccagno

I am an anthropologist. I was pleased to joined the Care in Funerals team as a research fellow because it fitted well with my academic and personal interests on end-of-life issues. I am a member of Libera Uscita, an Italian association focused on Right to Die with Dignity, and from my home in Scotland I have been promoting open conversations about death for fostering pathways of awareness. I brought to the project a particular interest in the notion of ‘limit’ and the implications of restrictions and limitations placed on funeral provision at different stages in the pandemic.

Paul Kefford

I am an experienced death practitioner, working as a funeral celebrant and end of life doula, and actively engaged with the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath.  I also draw from my long experience as a former civil servant in the Cabinet Office (as well as some years as a volunteer Samaritan listener) to take a reflective approach to my own work, as well as through my offering supervision to other celebrants.  This casebook offers useful material for practitioners to reflect on their approach with a hope of strengthening emotional resilience in and around dying, death and bereavement. I was delighted to have been able to share my own practitioner experience and perspective with the project.

Rebecca Crozier

As an archaeologist specialising in the study of ancient human remains, my research interests ultimately lie with how communities in the past dealt with death. Essentially, I spend my time trying to reconstruct past mortuary practices from the more tangible remains left behind. From Stone Age Orkney, to the Metal Age of the Philippines, I have found that the way humans choose to conduct their funeral rites is hugely varied and complex. I have brought learning and questions arising from this diversity to the Care in Funerals project.  As a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, I look forward to taking learning from the project back into my research and teaching – including an interdisciplinary undergraduate course that I lead on ‘Death!’

Vikki Entwistle

I’m what you might call an ‘interdisciplinary’ scholar. That means I draw on the approaches and learning of several different academic areas in my work.  My research to date has focused largely on questions about quality, ethics and social justice in healthcare and public health provision. Serving as principal investigator for the Care in Funerals project gave me a wonderful opportunity to help develop thinking about how and why funerals matter to people and what makes for good funeral provision. I was privileged to hear the diverse and often extremely difficult experiences of people who were bereaved and people who worked to provide funerals during the pandemic, and it has been a treat to work on the development of the Casebook. I look forward to supporting its use and will welcome suggestions for improving and extending it.  

Guest commentary contributors

Sofia Allana

Sofia Allana has been in the bereavement sector for over 20 years where she has experience in various roles including cemetery and crematorium management. She now works for the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM) using her experience to help others within the sector with their enquiries. Sofia is also the editor of The Journal, the ICCM publication which chronicles activity and initiatives throughout the industry.

Ruth Bickerton

Ruth Bickerton is a PhD candidate at the University of Dundee researching inequalities in funerals from different social, geographic and income perspectives. Ruth was previously a research assistant exploring funeral poverty in Dundee. She is a Trustee of the Dundee-based charity Funeral Link, which aims to prevent hardship for people who are organising and paying for a funeral.

Heather L Munro

Dr Heather L Munro is an anthropologist who conducts research with Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and other Jewish communities. Her recent work includes studies of Hasidic Jewish experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in London and New York. Heather is currently a lecturer at King’s College London. 

Nawal K Prinja

Professor Nawal Prinja comes from a traditional Hindu Brahmin family. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya and has studied in Kenya, India and the UK.  He is a Technology Director of a leading nuclear engineering company, is an honorary professor in four British universities and sits on several international scientific committees and government advisory boards. Alongside his professional jobs, Nawal has continued with his traditional family role of officiating at Hindu ceremonies and performing religious rites. As a practising Hindu, he is regularly consulted by educational institutions, media, solicitors and other bodies on matters related to Hinduism. He has studied Sanskrit and taught Hindu philosophy and scriptures. Nawal is currently the Education Director of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK (World Council of Hindus) charity.

Halina Suwalowska

Dr Halina Suwalowska is a Researcher Fellow at the Ethox Centre, Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities at the University of Oxford. Halina is a sociologist by background and has worked with a number of universities and humanitarian organisations around the world to build research capacity to support preparedness and responses to humanitarian crises and epidemics. Halina’s current research focus is on the ethical and social issues emerging in managing dead bodies during natural disasters and epidemics and the challenges experienced by frontline staff and ‘last responders’ when caring for the dead.

Teck Chuan VOO

Dr Teck Chuan Voo is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. Trained in Philosophy and Medical Jurisprudence, he works on various ethical issues in health policy and research, with focus on epidemic ethics topics.

How we developed the Casebook

We developed the casebook to support reflection and discussion about values and the practical-ethical concerns that can arise in connection with funerals. By practical-ethical concerns we mean things like:

• uncertainty and disagreement about what is good and right to do 
• experiences of worry and distress at not being able to do or achieve what is good and right
• questions of whether particular (and sometimes ‘usual’) practices are justified, and 
• experiences of unfairness.

These concerns can arise for different people. This includes bereaved people who are organising or attending funerals, whether as family or otherwise, and with varying experiences of relationship to the person who died. It also includes people who work or volunteer in any of the varied roles that contribute to funeral provision and associated care of the dead and bereaved including, but not limited to, mortuary staff, funeral directors, cemetery and crematorium staff, religious leaders and volunteers, and funeral celebrants.   

Through the Care in Funerals project we heard many examples of practical-ethical concern. Some arose, or were made more challenging and painful, because of the disruption to funeral provision that occurred during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the Casebook we have compiled a set of cases that between them illustrate something of the diversity of practical-ethical concerns that can arise, and for different people. Some examples are drawn from the particularly difficult COVID-19 pandemic years, but all have ongoing relevance. 

Case stories

A case writing team developed the case stories and the suggested questions that accompany them. The stories are based on situations and experiences shared with the Care in Funerals research team, but details have been changed, and situations and experiences combined in a variety of ways so none of the cases refer to any specific, real individuals, either dead or living. The characters in the Casebook are thus fictitious ‘composites’. We have, however, been careful to keep the situations and experiences realistic. 

Commentaries

The commentaries that accompany the case stories have been written by both academic and practitioner members of the Care in Funerals research team and by guest contributors who bring additional expertise on particular topics. Commentary authors are named in the introductory paragraph for each commentary and short biographies are provided on the Casebook Team page. 

The case stories and commentaries have been reviewed by an editorial team, and in some cases by other members of the Care in Funerals research team and additional professional practitioners and relevant cultural or religious experts. We will continue to keep the content under review. If you think that something in the casebook is problematic, please let us know.

How to use the Casebook

We developed the casebook as a resource to help people reflect on and discuss what is valued in funeral provision and some of the many practical-ethical concerns that can arise after people die. We hope it will support diverse efforts to ensure good funeral provision.

We hope the casebook will be of particular value to people who work or volunteer in any death-related services, as well as to people who are considering working in those services. More generally, though, it may be useful for anyone with an interest in death and funeral provision, and for people with an interest in the practical-ethical questions that arise in everyday life. 

The 12 case stories are the core of the case book. You can choose to engage with any of these at any time – there is no need to take them in any order, and we don’t think you need to engage with all of them for the casebook to be useful. The brief descriptions on the casebook tabs give you some indication of what each case is about, and the topic list  may also help you find a case that relates to issues you are particularly interested in. 

We suggest it will usually be helpful to give yourself (and, if appropriate, others in your group) time to read the case – perhaps a couple of times – and to reflect a little on what you think and feel about it before you turn to the other resources or start discussing it.  You might then find it interesting and useful to consider the suggested questions for reflection and discussion, and perhaps one or more of the commentaries that have been provided for each case. The commentaries variously provide background information that can help you understand what is going on in the case and why (for example if there are religious beliefs or cultural customs that you are not familiar with) and offer some particular perspectives on the issues that arise in the case. 

The cases, questions and commentaries are not intended to give you a single correct answer to a question about what should be done in a particular funeral situation, and the casebook is not intended to be like a recipe book for good funerals. Rather, we hope it gives you an opportunity to acknowledge the kinds of practical-ethical concerns that can arise in funeral provision and to think about the values you would like to see upheld and the ways you think tensions between people’s competing values can be appropriately navigated. 

Please be as creative as you like in using the casebook. We would be delighted to hear how you have used it, what if any difference it made for you, and how you think it could be improved.