Ashes To Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer

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I started MyGoodbyes after losing my dad to cancer and recognising that so few of us talk about how we would like to die.

By Evie King Ashes To Admin (Tales from the Caseload of a

She learns how to become immune to the "smell of death" to maggots in months'-old food and, in the process, realises that she possesses a talent for organising respectful funerals for the dispossessed dead. Evie offers a fascinating and often amusing insight into an aspect of death that is universally feared. Imagine a life without the presence of family or friends; you sadly pass away alone and your life remains unrecognised, neglected as if never to be heard again.

This is where King comes into her own, setting out on a mission to find out whatever she can about them, using all the means at her disposal and some inspired methods of her own. There are a couple of deeply unsavoury characters for whom funerals are required, but the rest are a joy to read about - such as Edward (aka 'Adam'), Carl, Jean, and Alex; the unknown girl who brought strangers together in an outpouring of love and compassion; and the minister who conducted a funeral dressed as a Jedi, in a chapel decked out like a spaceship. Please consider making a donation to help me continue this site, and to organise future Dead Good Conversations. This book gives you an insight into what life is like as a council worker arranging funerals for the dearly departed. The chapters that follow, poignantly named after some of the individuals whose funerals Evie organised, and whose lives she here respects and honours, are filled with stirring details.

Ashes To Admin by Evie King | Waterstones

This is a well-written memoir that had me streaming with tears one minute and snorting with laughter another. Sometimes you just know that you are going to love a book from the first few sentences and that was absolutely the case with Ashes to Admin. These experiences made it all the more touching to read this book about a local government officer who makes funeral arrangements for people that die without either the money or the loved ones to have it dealt with privately.Her book aims to tell the otherwise lost stories of those who have ended up in her care, smash that 3am anxiety about who will be there when we die and how many people will attend our funeral, encourage advanced planning, and invite us to rethink our ideas around life, death and legacy. In Ashes to Admin, Evie shows, however, that very few people aren’t loved, but that mourners can take various shapes. It will, hopefully, give you a different perspective on death and making sure we make our wishes known before we depart. In the episode, Woodthorpe reflects on blended families and how the death of her father-in-law challenged her to reflect on what her role was and whether she should be responsible for certain things, like the funeral.

Ashes to Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Ashes to Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral

Evie King is a local council worker charged with carrying out Section 46 funerals under the Public Health Act. A former stand up comedian, she has always written short form pieces in the margins of her various day jobs, contributing to New Humanist, Guardian Comment is Free, BBC Comedy and Viz Comic. Or to put it in less cold, legislative language; funerals for those with nobody around, willing or able to bury or cremate them. Alongside dealing with the standard complaints we expect the council to deal with (bin collections, noise, dog poo, etc), she sees humanity, life, and death in all its strangeness. Read on for a remarkable discovery into our world of mourning and sorrow through King’s compassionate words!Beautifully written, beautiful, heartbreaking, uplifting and serious food for thought for everyone since as she (obviously) correctly points out, we all die. In lay terms, that means arranging funerals for people who die alone, without family or friends to arrange a funeral. It is also testament to how far a stranger will go to show that each life is important and that we should all aim to live well. I'd never heard of the post of Council Funeral Officer before; but it sounded like a fascinating job, organising Section 46 funerals under the Public Health Act, ie, for people without the family and/or finances to cremate or bury them: although I do wonder how many CFOs perform their task in the way that Evie does.