The “founding father” of gravestone studies has died. A Muslim family in Canada was denied burial at a cemetery near their home. And a writer decries the trend of extravagant funerals in Ghana. These stories and more are in the week in funeral news.
NEWS
Muslim Family in Canada Forced to Move Burial after Being Denied at Cemetery
By Loveen Gill (City News)
The father of a university student killed in a collision says his grief worsened after learning his daughter could not be buried at a nearby cemetery, even after a burial plot had already been prepared. Read more here.
Allan Ludwig, “Founding Father” of Gravestone Studies, Dies at 92
By Jere Longman (The New York Times)
In 1955, Allan Ludwig, an art historian and photographer, made a wrong turn while driving to a pig roast in rural Connecticut. As evening approached, he told The New York Times years later, he and his wife, Janine, “saw this beautiful graveyard on the top of a hill.” The couple explored the Colonial-era burial site as the light struck at an angle that amplified the carvings on the gravestones. That wrong turn became a fortunate misstep, leading to the publication in 1966 of “Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815.” Mr. Ludwig’s book, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, contained scholarly analysis and 256 black-and-white plates of gravestone images he photographed, inspiring a reassessment of Puritan funerary art and contesting the widely held notion that the imagery was meaningless. Read more here.
A Chicago Rabbi Has Made It His Mission to Care for the Indigent, in Life and in Death
By Mark I. Rosen (Chicago)
With more than 175,000 graves, Waldheim Cemetery is the largest Jewish burial ground in the Chicago, IL, area. Just east of the Des Plaines River in Forest Park, Jewish Waldheim, as it’s commonly called, is actually a collection of many small cemeteries–hundreds of them, with different owners, divided by fences and gates. Behind two of those gates there are plenty of graves, but few headstones. It is here that many Jews without the means to pay for a cemetery plot and burial are laid to rest, most of them by a man named Shlomo Tenenbaum, the former longtime rabbi at the Ark, a Jewish social services agency in West Rogers Park that helps individuals and families experiencing financial insecurity. Over four decades, Tenenbaum has organized and conducted more than 3,000 funerals for indigent individuals. Read more here.
My Mother’s Number Is Still in My Phone
By Raya Elfadel Kheirbek (The Washington Post)
My mother is buried in an interfaith cemetery. She was born in Beirut, married in Damascus, and forced by war to leave both. Layers of loss marked every aspect of her life–where she lived, the languages she spoke, even her sense of certainty. That she now rests among strangers who are mourned by those with different prayers, different ideas about the afterlife or even its possibility, is fitting, in its own quiet way. Read more here.
Thirty Funeral Moments That Became Unforgettable for All the Wrong Reasons
By Bored Panda
The way we send each other off to the afterlife can vary depending on the culture. But generally, there are expectations for how guests should conduct themselves. It's a very emotionally charged occasion, and behavior matters. However, not everyone gets it. Read more here.
OPINION
Funeral Extravagance in Ghana and the Moral Responsibility of Social Stewardship
By Serwaah Bonsu (News Ghana)
The increasing visibility of extravagant funeral practices in Ghana–most strikingly exemplified by the use of gold-plated caskets–raises critical ethical questions within societies grappling with profound socio-economic deprivation. While funerals are deeply embedded cultural, spiritual, and emotional rituals through which families honor the dead, the escalation of material excess in burial practices demands serious moral reflection. When symbolic displays of wealth in death coexist with widespread hunger, homelessness, inadequate health care and limited access to education, a troubling imbalance emerges between private expression and public responsibility. Read more here.