Wealden Times | WT172 | June 2016 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

The
Green
Goddess
Penny Kemp
on opting for a
natural burial
Credit: FreeImages.com/John Evans
Early May has been tragic. First a dear friend died,
much too young from a brain tumour. Then, two
days later, Jonathan Cainer the astrologer had a
heart attack at his York home and was pronounced dead on
arrival at the hospital. He was only 58. Jonathan had had
a regular slot at the Speakers’ Forum in the Green Fields
at the Glastonbury festival, the forum being something I
have organised for a number of years. The original title he
gave me for his talk this year was ‘Does the future have a
future?’ He then got in contact with me a few days later
to change it as he thought it might be a little depressing.
I am convinced he knew something was afoot. We have
decided to fill his talking space with a joyful celebration
of his life and plant a tree in the King’s Meadow at
Glastonbury where the Dalai Lama gave a speech. Just as I
was arranging the celebration of life ceremony, the phone
rang to tell me that a cousin failed to beat breast cancer
and had died that morning, at the tender age of 45.
When my mother passed away in her mid 80s, I offered to
arrange the funeral. I wanted as natural a burial as possible
but you have to consider the rest of the family. I was keen on
a woodland burial but, for some relatives, it was a step too
far. The compromise was a beautiful willow coffin, which
we decorated with flowers from our garden. The passion
flower was in full bloom and the girls and I spent a quiet last
hour with my mother and their granny weaving the passion
flowers into the willow. Even my 90-year-old aunt was happy
with the coffin and, when the organist said to me she was
stipulating in her will that a willow coffin should be ordered
for her own funeral, I felt I had done my little bit to help the
environment.
There is a huge range of environmentally friendly coffins on
the market from humble cardboard, willow, bamboo to the
exotic curved coffins hand-crafted in Tenterden.
Woodland burials are becoming more acceptable and will
offer a permanent place of rest and, at the same time create
the woods this country so desperately needs. You may want
to check that the site is managed in accordance with schemes
approved by wildlife and woodland trusts.
The Natural Death site www.naturaldeath.org.uk is the place to
start to find out what you can and cannot do. The people who
run the site are kind and keen to help guide you through any
difficulties you may encounter when planning a funeral. We need
to remember that death is a natural process that comes to us all.
161 www.wealdentimes.co.uk
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