Here are handy links to my 75 articles. Click on the titles that interest you and perhaps open your mind to the inevitable.
A journo of many years, I enjoy telling stories – especially ones that no one else tells. Some of these blogs took weeks of research. The more we learn about death and its rituals, the more comfortable we become with them and our own mortality. I hope these blogs are helpful as you come to terms with your finite existence.
Like the stories you are about to explore, your story is important. Please consider telling yours to your family or community – write parts of it down in places like The Bottom Drawer Book: the after death action plan. I can guarantee you there are things about you that nobody remembers and are very much worth documenting. You matter, and so does your story.
xLisa
An ethical dilemma. Who is a funeral for?
What happens when an earthquake hits a funeral?
The adventures of Rob’s parents’ ashes
Funeral director furphies and rip offs
The men who scoured the battlefields for our war dead
The Wishing Well: mourners’ memories
No footsteps as the Queen lies in state
Does your estate’s executor know who you bank with?
Toowoomba’s intriguing railwaymen honour board
The consequence of scattering ‘ashes’
Catering over coffins: new report shows what we really value when it comes to funerals
A song and a tattoo: the gift that Kelly’s mum left for her family.
When your 1800s great great great great grandfather becomes a media star in the 21st century
Site of asylum’s hidden and forgotten cemetery acknowledged on Qld Heritage Register
All I want for Christmas is transparent funeral pricing: ACCC releases report into funeral sector
Etched in stone: Cemeteries reveal a typhoid history
A memorial party? What will I wear?
Four sons killed in war and a pull-down blind to hide their names
Growing a garden grave: giving new life to a forgotten grave
How does a woman die a spinster in a gold mining town? The tale of Elizabeth Richards
Country singers’ ashes flushed and put in rhythm shaker
Prime Minister’s latest Covid 19 advice sees funeral giant’s share price plummet
Funeral photography and memorial photobooks: telling your loved one’s story
Books and a death mask: it’s funny what you find in the library
Creator’s ashes in foundations of Warwick sculpture
The photo that changed it all: a funeral, a pact and an outlandish dress.
Headstone symbol reveals convict past
Coffins and company: the coffin club changing lives
Funeral trains: All aboard at Sydney’s Mortuary Station
More Aussie deaths this winter to boost Invocare’s profits
What a visit to my local mosque taught me about Muslim funeral rituals
Old Uralla Cemetery: more than just bushranger territory
Cemetery symbolism: what do the shapes, engravings, and symbols on headstones mean?
Digital death: Facebook takes memorial accounts a step further if you die
Where are the graves? A quick guide to natural burials
Telling stories from the grave: Gold Coast teen’s memorial becomes a technological world first
The inventor who safely lowered coffins into graves
A taxi driver’s murder, executions and the missing graves: Darwin’s fascinating Fannie Bay gaol
Discrimination in death: Why are there so few headstones in Derby?
Test cricketer lies in unidentified grave in WA’s Goldfields, Cricket NSW searching for descendants
Lost remains of Wolston Park Mental Asylum patients buried in trenches
Goldrush murder: Assassinated Afghani cameleer rests in outback WA cemetery
The life lessons of dying children
‘Coffin swapping’ discussion highlights changing views on funerals
The grape-ful dead: A wine with body fit for a funeral
“Killed by a blow from a whale”: The tragedy of the Kelly family
The volunteer headstone repairer: Eddie Mason’s cemetery passion
Burial at sea in shallow waters: Only in the Territory
Are you sure you want to die in Queensland? Getting the facts on funerals
No fowl play at Mackay toy shop offering life lessons ahead of Dying To Know Day on August 8
Cultural sensitivities: Why aren’t we saying Dr G Yunupingu’s first name?
Fowl play suspected as chickens ruffle feathers in New Zealand cemetery
Five hundred bodies lost: The troubling tale of gold fortunes at Arrowtown
Cemetery tales: typhoid and death by beer barrel
Dissenters to the right, Roman Catholics to the left – segregation in death
Listening to the dying and giving them a voice too: The emerging role of the Death Doula
Funeral faux pas: I showed up to the wrong funeral
The Stupa: a high rise for generations of human remains
Where did the cemetery at Singapore’s Fort Canning Park go?
A mass grave and tributes to our war dead: Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore
Umbrellas over graves and coffins hanging from cliffs
Ashes scattered by fireworks means loved ones go off with a bang
