The Natural Death Centre, 1995

Nicholas Albery

The last 12 months have been as busy as ever at The Natural Death Centre. The Centre receives between 100 and 1,000 letters a week, depending on recent media coverage. Its offshoots are expanding fast:

  • The Association of Nature Reserve Burial Grounds, set up for woodland and green burial grounds, where a tree is planted instead of having a headstone, is now promoting 17 or so such grounds that are open, and knows of 40 or more at the planning stage, some started by farmers, some by wildlife trusts and some by local authorities.

    The English Day of the Dead ffor 1995 took green burial as its theme, with an open day at many of the farmer-run sites. Over 300 members of the public visited these sites on that Sunday afternoon. Also open on the day were the two first burial shops, Heaven on Earth (described in this book), and Green Undertakings in Watchet, Somerset. These shops may be smaller than the planned French death supermarket (due to open in London in the autumn) but they show more imagination, have lower prices and are generally more convivial.

  • The Befriending Network also described in this book) is busy providing an intensive training for the volunteers who are visiting those who are critically ill in their homes, hoping to provide some relief for the carers.

    The Natural Death Centre's recent publications have included, besides this book, the fundraising anthology, Poem for the Day - 366 Poems, old and new, worth learning by heart published by the Centre in association with Sinclair-Stevenson, and available from the Centre, by cheque or by phone with credit card, for £11-49 inc. p&p). This received rave reviews, was given a whole programme on BBC Radio 4's 'Poetry Please', was selected as one of the three best books by BBC Radio 4's 'A Good Read', and has been reprinted four times in nine months. All royalties from the book go to the Centre. Do please consider giving this 400-page book, which has an inspiring poem for every day of the year, as Christmas or birthday presents.

    Tied in with the book is the Arts-Council-supported Poetry Marathon, for Sunday, October 8th '95, in St Johns Wood, London, from 2pm to 7pm. (Book a place by phoning the Centre on 0181 208 2853, there is no entry charge as such, but participants must bring a copy of Poem for the Day to be allowed in). The idea of the Marathon, as with the London running marathon, is to act as a fund-raising tool for charities and community groups all over the country. You simply get family and friends to sponsor you to learn a poem or two, at so much per poem, with the money going to the charity of your choice. Ideally you will choose to learn one of the 366 poems from the Poem for the Day book. (Send SAE for a sponsorship form.)

    A revised print of the second edition of the Centre's book, Green Burial - The d-i-y guide to law and practice, written by the Centre's very knowledgeable consultant J. B. Bradfield, and based on original research, was published in April '95 and is fast becoming the standard work that local authorities refer to on questions to do with private land burial.

    The Natural Death Handbook continues to be in demand and the Good Funeral Guide chapter, which refers to helpful services, looks set to expand mightily in any future edition.

    Most people's first contact with the Centre is through the information pack which costs six first class stamps or a £1-50 cheque, to cover the photocopying costs). This pack is updated on an almost weekly basis. As a supplement to the pack there are several experimental sheets (featured in this book), the death plan and the advance funeral wishes forms, which with the Centre's Living Will fforms are available for a further four first class stamps.

    The most exciting new development, thanks to the help of Flemming Funch in California, has been to get a great deal of the information about inexpensive, Green, family-organised funerals up onto Internet, where it can be accessed free by anyone with a computer and modem. The Centre has been very surprised to find that between 50 and 60 people a day are looking at its Internet World Wide Web ppages (the main address is http.//www.newciv.org/worldtrans/naturaldeath.html).

    Meanwhile the day-to-day work goes on:

  • There are the Natural Death Salon discussion groups (the next one is on September 24th and will have a solicitor on hand. It will be not only an opportunity for discussions on preparing for dying and on green burial, but a chance to get guidance on making a Will, a Living Will, a Power of Attorney, and for discussing the death plan and advance funeral wishes forms, mentioned above).

  • There is Josefine Speyer's one-to-one counselling on Tuesdays for individuals and small groups, and her training seminars for nurses.

  • There are Christianne Heal's Living with Dying workshops which she runs up and down the country, wherever a group can raise enough participants.

  • And every day there are people who phone in whose friends and relatives have just died and who want to see what the funeral alternatives are.

    Friends of the Natural Death Centre help this charity keep going, since their support is by standing order and is thus dependable, from year to year. If you can afford it, do please consider becoming a Friend by filling in a banker's standing order for £20 a year (see the form at the back of this book). Friends get reductions on events and occasional mailings, but mainly they are just helping keep the Centre afloat.

    As a small token of gratitude, a free copy of this book is going to all those who have been Friends over the last year.

    The Natural Death Centre, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 0181 208 2853; fax 0181 452 6434; e-mail ).

    Previous / Next / Table of Contents