That’s All Folks…

Life has a funny way of making you feel uncomfortable for your own good, for example in convincing you to move or change something. This can make perfect sense in context, an itch that makes you move your leg away from a nettle or a simple feeling of unease that makes you avoid a looming danger. Yet, sometimes it can occur somewhere you feel you don’t want to move from, a place where you felt settled and which appeared unchanging. It then rips you out of it if you let it, tears you away in confusion, but that makes space for something new. Something, perhaps, even promising.

I have known for nearly a year that my work situation was no longer serving me. The desire and need to help people has been constantly fighting against aspects of my job that only made me feel uncertain and uneasy. Feelings, occurrences and thoughts have gathered and snowballed until crushing me while trying to process and understand what was going on.

I have been seeking an opportunity and a way out for a long time. Knowing that my situation meant needing some very specific requirements from wherever I was about to jump to. I wanted a dream scenario of a great work/life balance with financial stability. It’s fine to dream but hardly sensible to jump from a ship if you can’t swim, right? Well, it just so happens I jumped straight into a lifeboat. One with good stuff, like snacks and WiFi. 

Here is nine years of my musings, my advice and my funny little rabbit hole investigations. We should not forget the fact this used to be titled ‘But Gemma’s Such a Nice Girl’ which was one person’s immediate response to being told that I was beginning my mortuary career. Now it comes to a close, or at least a hiatus, I have wished MortuaryGem well and sent her off to live somewhere lovely in retirement. That doesn’t mean she’s there to stay indefinitely, if there’s one thing we know about APTs it’s that coming back from retirement is a bit of a given. For now, we remain amicable friends and she is getting some much needed respite.

My most read post for a long time was thought to be the one about Enrique Inglesias and his situs inversus, but is in fact my #OOTD which makes me wonder how many people stumbled across that not knowing what they were about to read. My favourite series to complete was the studying the structures of the neck, and by far the most memorable (and poignant…) study of mine was falling in love with Sir Edwin Chadwick the Victorian Social Reformer.

We’ve been through a lot together, job promotions, two weddings, qualifications, a baby, countless podcast recordings, radio appearances and talks. We’ve faced and made it out of a pandemic together and for that very reason this is very hard to post.

Some of you are loyal readers never missing anything I write, and for that I do owe you this final goodbye. MortuaryGem.com will cease at the end of June 2026 but the content will remain as a blog here.  I will continue to write, and chug away at the book I have been attempting to complete for a year now. I might even post some bits to my very quiet Substack if anyone would like to find me on there.

Now all I need to say is;

Stay safe, stay sane, and goodbye.

Gem x