Tag Archives: funeral

Margaret Thatcher Dies At 87

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margaretthatcherMargaret Thatcher died today after suffering a stroke. She was 87.

The former grocers daughter was Britain’s first and only female Prime Minister. Lord Bell, her spokesman said: “It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning. A further statement will be made later.”

Lady Thatcher will have a ceremonial funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral with full military honours.

Prime Minister David Cameron gave his tribute: “It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Lady Thatcher. We have lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton.”

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the defining figures in modern British politics.

“Whatever side of the political debate you stand on, no-one can deny that as prime minister she left a unique and lasting imprint on the country she served.

Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood tweeted: “Sad news about Baroness Thatcher. Don’t miss her policies but a towering figure in 20th c British politics, & made history UK’s 1st woman PM.”

Conservative MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston Zac Goldsmith tweeted: “There’s a reason every aspiring leader wanted to be photographed alongside Lady T. A giant, not just of the C20 but in our country’s history.”

Tom McPhail, Head of Pensions Research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said her government was responsible for the launch of Personal Pensions in July 1988 and for the scrapping of compulsory occupational pension scheme membership, in April 1988. Her political ideology emphasising individual rights and responsibilities, rather than collectivism (“there’s no such thing as society”) can still be seen today. Pension provision may be focused through the workplace but with the end of final salary pensions and the move to money purchase arrangements, the question of what people get to live on in retirement is increasingly dependent on the decisions which they take for themselves.

What are your views on Margaret Thatcher? Do you think she was a good Prime Minister? Let us know.

 

 

Secret Service Files – Protecting The President.

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This documentary about the Secret Service is riveting  and informative. Broken down into four different events in which a President was in danger. It has access to the Presidents themselves and good archive footage.

Agent Robert Rodriguez and President Clinton talk us through King Hassan’s funeral. Dozens of world leaders were in Morocco for the funeral. Which the secret service agents refer to as a ‘sea of humanity’. There was a two mile walk during the funeral that left the President open to attack. The Secret Service advised him not to do the walk but he Insisted on it. Their were two leaders who were not popular in that part of the world, Presidents Clinton and Bush.

The Secret Service were on high alert as the death of a leader and religious figure is a recipe for disaster.

Agent Staropoli, who was in the counter assault team, otherwise known as CAT, was there to back up their Secret Service colleagues if anything went wrong as they have enhanced weapons that the rest of the team don’t have.

Bill Clinton says of the Secret Service when he was President,  “they were good at trying to be flexible because they knew I liked to be with people.”

The feeling you really get from this documentary is of bravery and courage. Of men risking their lives for their country and the man who runs it. As Agent Rodriguez says, “I would rather be dead than labelled a coward… I have never heard of an agent who had doubts about taking a bullet for the president.”

In another scenario with President George Bush Snr The president had to be evacuated. The agents say that, ‘the welfare of the president is always more important that pomp and circumstance.’

Joseph Funk said this event was the first time the CAT team had a full employment. There were tear gas, gunshots and unruly crowd. The Secret Service work by ‘cover and evacuate’.  They do 360 degree coverage of the President. Above, below and around and they also create a stable shooting platform.

When President Clinton went into Pakistan in March 2000 for a television address the Secret Service were against it. Clinton himself says that he, “knew I was in greater danger after going after Bin Laden”.

The agent says that AK47 are popular and easy to get in that region and that they went in against their better judgement.

They had a decoy airplane and made use of the element of surprise. Intelligence revealed that Pakistani secret police had been infiltrated and had people with Taliban sympathies.

They had six armed cars with the presidential seal so any assassins had a one in six chance of getting the president. Clinton’s speech was only 15 minutes. The Secret Service can never relax or put their guard down. That is what normal people do. “We don’t think it is a job well done until we arrive back at the White House.” they say. They do an impressive job.

When President Bush went into Georgia a loner with violent tendencies, Vladimir Arutyunian,  threw a grenade at him which bounced of a little girl’s head and miraculously did not go off. One brave Georgian policeman took the live grenade and ran away from the crowds with it, knowing it could go off at any moment. The Georgian people love the United States and they wanted to show appreciation to President Bush because of the destruction of the Soviet Union. They even named the highway leading to the main airport after him

Bryan Paarmann, Special agent FBI. said they had metal detectors, which were very important but because of overcrowding the Georgian security team switched off the metal defectors. So they had an unscreened crowd of up to 100,000 people.

The Secret Service say that their greatest fear is an isolated loner prone to violence and that they have to be on their game 100% of the time. There is no room for error.

Secret Service Files – Protecting The President shows on the National Geographic Channel.

Best Caskets in Los Angeles

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A loved one passing away is always hard, so anything that makes dealing with the administration of a death is something to be thankful for. After the FTC passed a new funeral rule in 1995 consumers became able to supply their own goods at funerals. This was great news for people buying funeral goods as it makes the process easier and makes sure you do not get ripped off during a time when you will be emotionally vulnerable. The rule also allows you to get the price over the telephone and see a written price for caskets los angeles and anywhere else.

If you are looking for caskets for sale los angeles SameDay Caskets who specialize in a fast, reliable service. They have great costumer service and a brilliant selection. They also have caskets in a wide range of styles, for all budgets: 18 and 20 gauge steel caskets, elegant hardwood, and affordable veneer options. They even do same day delivery.

The caskets will arrive safely, intact and in time. If you need caskets los angeles then SameDay Caskets will give you fast, free delivery to anywhere in California. You can even visit their factory to see the casket in person. Sounds like value for money to me.

Sponsored Post.

Have You Seen… Five Documentaries to Seek Out (Part Three)

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Charles Rivington asks the immortal question: Do all dogs go to heaven?

 

I stated way back in part one that I was going to present this list in no particular order. Having said that I have saved my favourite feature length documentary by my favourite documentarian for last and written so much about it that I’ve had to give it an article in its own right. Oh well…

 

Gates of Heaven (1978)

 

Throughout the first two parts of this three-part article and through these four brilliant films, I have touched on some very challenging issues: war, mental illness and suicide, child molestation and the disintegration of a family, the birth of the movies. It therefore might seem somewhat anti-climatic, perhaps even rather disrespectful to have as my final entry a film about pet cemeteries. Surely a documentary about people batty enough to spend large amounts of money giving Fido a proper burial can only ever be mildly amusing (in a sort of ‘ha ha, she thinks he’s people’ kind of a way) or perhaps even just a bit pathetic. Surely, it can’t be one of the greatest and most profound works about mortality, loneliness and the human condition ever made, right?

 

Wrong. Errol Morris’ Gates of Heaven is, quite simply and quite literally, an incredible film. It’s the sort of film you could watch every day for the rest of your life and it would still be deeply rewarding. Throughout this article I’ve touched on what I believe makes a great documentary and I’ve suggested two things. Firstly, I’ve stated that a great documentary should be impartial and force the audience to form their own judgements

An enthusiastic pet owner.

without telling them what to think.  Because of Morris’ unobtrusive style and the fact that he lets his subjects speak for themselves and is neither nor seen nor heard throughout the entire film (Michael Moore could certainly learn from him), Gates of Heaven does this so effectively that that at any given moment of the film one section of the audience might be in tears while another suppresses giggles. Secondly, I have suggested that the great documentary will often take a subject and use it as a springboard to touch upon much broader or challenging themes. Gates of Heaven is a movie about freaking pet cemeteries that deals head on with humankind’s most terrifying and impossible question: that of its own mortality and solitude. This is truly the stuff of genius. It is one of the greatest documentaries of all time, by one of the greatest documentarians of all time and quite frankly one of the greatest films of all time. It’s also one of my favourites.

 

     Gates of Heaven takes as its inspiration the story of the exhumation and transportation of 450 pets from one cemetery to another. This fascinating and odd story is used to shape the film, which is structurally little more than a series of talking heads, into two halves. The first of these focuses on the story of Floyd “Mac” McClure, a paraplegic man who had dreamt of building a pet cemetery after the death of his childhood dog, and uses interviews with pet owners and investors in order to explore how his dream briefly became a reality. Particularly memorable interviewees include Mac’s rival, the owner of the local rendering plant who attempts to defend his unglamorous profession to hilarious effect, and a woman who holds conversations with her dog.  Most of Morris’ subjects have their eccentricities, and the film is not short of humour, but he has a unique skill for looking beyond these to the humanity below, frequently unearthing

Devastating

accounts of loss and loneliness. The story of the failure of Mac’s cemetery is a particularly resonant example of these and the tragedy of the matter is that this compassionate man was unable to translate his dream and his passion into a workable business.  It is a tragedy that occurs daily but that does not make it any less heart breaking and I imagine that it will resonate with many people, perhaps even more so now than in 1978. The final shot of Mac sitting in his wheelchair under a willow tree, surveying the former site of his failed cemetery is entirely devastating, a perfect, wordless evocation of loneliness and despair and a prime example of Morris’s subtle and unobtrusive early style.

 

 

Florence Rasmussen sits on her stoop.

At the film’s centre, acting as a kind of transitional moment between the two distinct halves, is a monologue by an elderly woman named Florence Rasmussen. It is truly one of the most bizarre, moving and hilarious few minutes of any film I have ever seen. Sitting on her stoop outside her house, which overlooks Mac’s cemetery, this fascinating woman recounts her baffling life story in short bursts, constantly contradicting herself as she attempts to explain her troubled relationship with her son. In another’s hands this might have come across as exploitative or condescending and it is abundantly clear that Rasmussen could easily have been mocked as a stereotypical madwoman. Morris’ camera however does not judge, merely records and the entire film is mercifully devoid of any cruel reality tv editing or Louis Theroux-style winks to the audience. Instead Florence is allowed to speak for herself and the result is a frustrating, funny and ultimately sad meditation on one woman’s delusion and loneliness. It is a stunning monologue and one that, as Roger Ebert states, ‘William Faulkner or Mark Twain would have wept with joy to have created.’ And yet, it is reality. It is reality, in its most pure, unedited and unscripted form. Sometimes real life truly is stranger than fiction.

 

 

A funeral at Bubbling Wells

The film’s focus then moves to The Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park, which is run by the Harberts family. Patriarch Cal is a lot more ambitious and business savvy than Mac but shares his compassion for animals and has even built a church in order to celebrate God’s love for pets. His wife Scottie shares this view stating that, ‘God is not going to say, well, you’re walking in on two legs, you can go in. You’re walking in on four legs, we can’t take you.’ Although clearly successful in their business endeavours, the Harbarts family also harbours some unhappiness and this is particularly obvious in their sons Danny and Philip who both left their other lives (college and a job as an insurance salesman) to come back to the family business.

 

 

A bereaved couple reminisces in Gates of Heaven

There is one moment from this second half of the film that never fails to move me: a long silent montage of the headstones at Bubbling Well. If I had seen it on it’s own without the benefit of the rest of the film, I admit that it would probably have left me cold and it is true that some of the inscriptions are at first glance rather trite, silly even (‘God spelled backwards is dog’ etc). However after 80 minutes spent in the company of animal lovers and grieving pet owners and hearing them express their loneliness and grief, these inscriptions become a profound articulation of a universal and fundamental need for companionship and love. One of them reads ‘I knew love: I knew this Dog’ while another simply reads ‘For saving my life’. It is clear that there are stories behind each of these inscriptions, heart-breaking, heart-warming stories behind every headstone, stories about what it means to be alive, what it means to love and what it means to experience profound loss. They are stories about what it means to be human. Gates of Heaven merely touches on a few of these stories and in doing so it earns its place as one of the greatest documentary films of all time.

 

 

Gates of Heaven is currently available on DVD as part of ‘The Errol Morris Collection’ box set along with Vernon, Florida and The Thin Blue Line, which are both excellent.

 

 

 

Amy Winehouse Was 'Physical Wreck' – Death Leaves A Trail Of Grief And Denials

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Amy Winehouse’s grieving mother has said that the singer was “a physical wreck” the day before she died and that her minders had to help her down the stairs. Janis, who suffers from MS, added that Amy was “completely out of it.”

The singer was apparently having weekly health check-ups and her doctor visited her 24 hours before her death but had ‘no concerns.” Her bodyguard, Andrew Morris, also checked on her in the morning, but when he returned in the afternoon, she had died.

After her funeral on Tuesday, Winehouse’s father gave fans her clothes, leaving one fan wearing a vest the singer owned. It also emerged that she was in the process of adopting a poor, 10-year-old, St Lucian girl.

Since the singer’s death, tributes have flooded in, and her family released a statement saying: “Our family has been left bereft by the loss of Amy, a wonderful daughter, sister, niece. She leaves a gaping hole in our lives. We are coming together to remember her and we would appreciate some privacy and space at this terrible time.”

Amy’s phone was apparently “routinely” hacked by members of the press, as were Winehouse’s parents, brother Alex and ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, according to investigative journalist Charles Lavery.

Talking about the troubled Londoner’s attendance at rehabilitation centres, a source told Lavery: “The press knew where she would be, who would be there, what time, at any given time.

“They were able to be there too, to befriend her and actively encourage her, as if they had arrived by chance. That made better copy and, more importantly, better photos for the snappers both inside and waiting outside.

Ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil said that losing Winehouse has left him “inconsolable”, while Fielder-Civil’s mother hit out at critics who said he was responsible for the singer’s untimely, saying he had nothing to do with it.

Amy joins the ’27 Club’ – a list of famous rock stars who died at the same age  – which also includes Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Brian Jones.

Catherine Balavage on the death of her Grandfather.

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In 2008 my Grandfather, Henry Anderson. Known as Harry, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Upon finding this out I felt two things 1) Denial. The Doctors did not know what they were talking about. 2) If true, I should spend as much time with my grandfather as possible, as he would probably die soon. There was a certain numbness to this. In knowing it was true, I could not comprehend it. It did not seem possible.

The author with her grandfather, Harry Anderson.

The author with her grandfather, Harry Anderson.

When I was younger we had a cat. The cat got old and grey. I knew it would die soon. I talked to my mother about this and I told my mother that I had decided to prepare myself for this. My mother, with all the gentleness of someone who was older and wiser, to a child who has no idea about mortality, told me this was not possible. You can never prepare yourself for death. She was right.

grandad

My Grandfather died on the 5th of December 2009. He was 83 years old. He had lived an amazing life and has a loving family. He had been a pilot in the RAF. I tried to make sure my mother was alright after she called me. Then I went to work. I had tried to see my grandfather as much as possible when he was alive. I was shortly going to go up to Scotland for Christmas, and now….

This happened on the Oxford Street Christmas shopping day. The roads were closed off and it was wall to wall people. After work I walked around in a numbness past crying. I kept saying over and over to myself WH Auden style ‘He is dead.’ and yet, it would not sink in. I would never see his face again. I felt like my heart had been ripped out and handed to me. But I could not cry. There was nothing in me.

It was a few days until I managed to make it to Scotland. I felt awful. Ached for my mother, so recently orphaned – her mother, in the last stages of renal failure, had killed herself aged 40. My mother had outlived her own mother – I held her like I had never before. I was so proud at how strong she was.

In my Grandfathers home standing in the last remnants of a life no longer lived, looking for something to remember him by, I had never been so heartbroken. I stared at his shoes, haphazard around the room. His feet would never be in them again.

When I was 5 years old. I was singing and showing off. The picture is above.  As I was singing I fell down some stairs. My grandfather rushed to save me but before he could I just got up and carried on singing. Later on, my grandfather always insisted I made him tea when I was in Scotland just so he could use the line ‘I just got a cup of tea from a movie star.’ His faith in me was blinding. He bought me a jewellery box when I was 17. ‘For my diamonds.’

At the funeral it hit me. On the way there we went past me Grandfather’s coffin. My mother’s face fell as she said quietly ‘ Oh god, that’s my dad in there. There’s my dad.’ Upon seeing all my family who I had not seen in years it got worst. My father, sandwiched in-between my mother and I , did not know who to comfort. We were both crying hysterically. He looked like a cartoon character going between us both. I had never cried so much in my life. After the funeral when I looked in the mirror, I looked like Alice Cooper.

There is a lot of myths about deaths. One of them is ‘it gets better’ It does not. My acting career has gone from strength to strength. I live an amazing life full of the most amazing people and yet I miss him every single day. It hits me when I see the biscuits he used to buy in the supermarket. When I am on set, in the quiet moments. I loved him so much and I will never see him again. At this moment I have no tips on bereavement. Time does not heal. It merely blunts the edges.