On Sunday, Ma and I went to the Crematorium to ‘visit’ Grandad and his ‘plague’ (When my Grandad realised that he was dying, he gave Mum a letter with his wishes, the hymns he wanted at his funeral and so on. In it, he said that he wanted his body to be cremated and his ashes scatted around my Grandma’s rose bush and a plague to be put up! I’m pretty certain that he meant a plaque but his handwriting was always interesting – left handed, like me, no I’m left handed like him..). Anyway we went to see the amazing non flowering rosebush (once in 13 years have I see roses on that rosebush – I’m thinking about suing the Crematorium for trade descriptions…)

The weather was lovely so we had a wander around, the West London Crematorium is one of the big Victorian cemeteries in London and although some people might, I don’t think that a walk around a cemetery is morbid. A more matter of fact, less sentimental attitude to death might be a good thing and using cemeteries as public space is part of that, the dead never really leave you and one day we’ll be the dead and we’ll be part of the same story.  Doesn’t hurt to walk around and remind yourself of that story sometimes…

I also love that so many cemeteries in London have a gasometer close by…