The Martinsey Isle Trust

Taking the Taboo out of Death

Natural Burial honouring life's sacred thresholds

Creating an idyll of Martinsey and Lidney Islands

Taking the Taboo out of Death

Many people are afraid to talk about death until unescapably confronted with it... and then it can be too late.

What happens when we die?

Did we give him a good send-off? Was it what he would have wanted?

He's unconscious... He can't tell me what he wants... He wanted something spiritual but not the usual kind of thing...

He wasn't religious. What shall I do for the service? What can I do?

I just wish we'd talked more! I wish we'd made up.

I miss her. Do you think she still knows what I'm doing in my life? And the grandchildren?

Is cremation bad for the environment?

Can I have a cardboard coffin? Will it fit under the bed? How much will it cost?

How can I tell the family that this is what I want? We never/they won't talk about dying...

I didn't say "Goodbye" properly. I didn't know how to. I didn't want him to know he was dying.

Can I really be buried in the garden?

Why didn't we talk about all this before she died?

She didn't leave a will. What can I do?

She's in a vegatative state. Could we have done more?

These are only a few of the concerns that are communicated to us at The Martinsey Isle Trust, and at the offices of The Natural Death Centre, and to others with whom we work closely.

By touring the play Colder Than Here, and its varying arts installations, we hope to open dialogue about this delicate subject in a less threatening way, and then to provide information about where to find some of the answers. It is a brilliantly crafted play, penned by Laura Wade, while still not 30. Performed with brilliant humour and poignant sensitivity it embodies such non-communication. Gradually, both living and dying are made more authentic as the family portrayed in the play deals with the pending death of Myra, mother and wife.

Without the enormous commitment, generosity and talent of Taboo (created from a local amateur dramatic group called SNADS especially for this play and now planning to explore other taboo subjects), none of this would be possible.

We now plan to take this production, its regular optional post-production discussion with the director, cast and the Trust and its newly introduced pre-production workshop, into schools and colleges so that the next generation is no longer afraid to talk about something which will inevitably happen to us all.

The Trust would like to make it clear that the aims expressed here are not necessarily those of Taboo.

Julia Hailes' Green Death Tips

• Donate your organs

• Say no to embalming

• Remove all jewellery and gold teeth before burial or cremation

• Dress minimally in death

• Use natural fibres such as hemp for cloths

• Select a 'green' coffin

• Do without a head stone

• Give cremation a miss: burning our dead is an environmental disaster

• If you're buried, find a site that will be used for other purposes

• Burying as deep as six feet under, there is little air and therefore no worms, and pretty few microbes working away at turning us to mulch.

Click here for the book review
from which the above is extracted

The Conversation
of the Unborn Twins

An unborn pair of twins' conversation in the womb of their mother...

So, do you actually believe in life after birth? one twin asks.

Yes, definitely! Inside we grow and are prepared for what will come outside, answered the other twin.

I believe that's nonsense! says the first. There can't be life after birth – what is that supposed to look like?

I don't exactly know either. But there will certainly be much more light than in here. And maybe we will be walking about and eat with our mouths?

I've never heard such nonsense! Eating with the mouth? What a crazy idea. The umbilical cord nourishes us. And how do you want to walk about? The umbilical cord is much too short.

I am sure it is possible. It's just that everything will be a little bit different.

You are crazy! Nobody ever came back after birth. Life is over with birth. That's it.

I admit that nobody knows what life after birth will look like. But I do know that we will see our mother then, and that she will take care of us.

Mother? But you don't believe in a mother, do you? Where is she?

She is here, all around us. We are within her and and we live through her. Without her we couldn't exist at all!

Nonsense! I've never sensed a mother, so consequently she doesn't exist.

Yes, sometimes, when we are very quiet you can hear her sing, or feel how she caresses our world.

- author unkown

HOME

The Art of Dying

What Makes a Good Death

Taking the Taboo out of Death