Be True To Yourself

That isn’t meant to sound as inspirational and internet meme-like as it does in all honesty. The reason for this title is that it was the general theme of the speeches at an event I went to this week. The mortuary team were invited to attend the Eid celebrations for the community at Ilford Islamic Centre on Monday, a great opportunity to meet with people. I also felt this was a good opportunity to find out more about the religions we encounter at the mortuary on a daily basis. Although not of any faith myself, I have a complete fascination with the traditions and rituals of religion especially around death.

The event commenced with a series of speeches from a combination of people from the Muslim community, politicians who were attending and then other religious figures from the community including people of Jewish, Sikh and Christian faiths. In all honesty the speeches were very much of a likeness in that they were saying how proud they are of the local area but one main theme I took from it was that among all our differences as people and our varied backgrounds we are all in this together to make the community (or even the world) a better place. It was mentioned a few times about racism and Islamophobia becoming more prevalent in the current climate, a fact I find very sad and disturbing. We were all reminded to be true to our own selves and to not let the current shift towards the hard right in many areas change what we hold important in our lives. It’s never a bad time to be reminded that you should be true to yourself and your feelings! One thing I want to say is that the MPs (and other politically involved people present) all put their differences aside and really gave some poignant speeches between them supporting each other and the work that they do which was very positive.

It was fabulous that the mortuary were personally thanked for their support in changing our methods of release to enable shorter periods of time before the deceased is returned to the family. We all have an understanding that our community has a wide range of different needs in respect to their deceased and do not take any request lightly. It is hugely important to many of our Jewish and Muslim families that there is no delay in the burial of the deceased and we do all we can to aid this where we can. I know I have written previously about my visit to the Gardens of Peace cemetery and what I have learnt but let me know if you would be interested in future posts about the differences between religions and their death practices. We were asked when we were there on Monday about the ratio of cremations to burials that we see – something we struggled to answer! However definitely something I am going to look into going forward.

It’s been yet another busy week so far, with just over a week to go before my next exam I am getting very nervous now and hoping it is not as disastrous as I am making it out to be in my head. I’m also waiting for the results of my last exam which are due any day now and I’m feeling the pressure! This evening I have a Simon Says Study! session booked in with my dear friend who answers all my stupid questions and dumbs down very complicated science for me. There’s also an online revision session with my other cohort members which should be really useful.

I’m going to try to get back to my pattern I was in when I first had this blog of updates and then interesting stuff I’ve found out about posting twice a week. Recently I’ve only managed once a week but I’d like to get back to that somehow! Hope the week is treating you well,

MG x