Posts by Abi Pattenden

On 9th and 10th June 2022, several members of the Care in Funerals research team had the pleasure of attending the annual conference of the University of Bath’s Centre for Death and Society (CDAS), hosted online. The theme this year was ‘Institutions and Death’.

In addition to an interactive session…

Some highlights from team members attending the DDD15 conference 

The 15th international conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal (DDD15) was held online from 1st – 4th September 2021, hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University for the Association for the Study of Death and Society. This year’s theme…

Abi Pattenden reflects on the advantages of discussing funeral plans with loved ones in advance – and suggests all is not lost even when they cannot be fulfilled to the letter.

The extent to which people plan their own funeral in advance varies widely. Some people leave very detailed…

Abi Pattenden reflects on the shifting reasons and possibilities for ‘doing something later’

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was significant uncertainty around the extent to which funerals would be able to continue at all. Pandemic planning had mostly focused on practicalities of body disposal rather than…

We asked a few members of the team to share ‘something that struck you’ about what they saw in the media of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. 

Jennie Riley – Choice and Personalisation

I didn’t commit to the full two and a half hours of BBC coverage which preceded the…

Abi Pattenden reflects on some of the changes that funeral directors have had to introduce during the COVID-19 pandemic

When news of the Coronavirus began to spread, we started making plans for what we then hoped was a worst-case scenario. I manage an independent funeral director in West Sussex on…