Y ears before the indomitable Joan Rivers died in 2014 she immortalised hopes for her own farewell in her memoir. “I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action ..
. I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don’t want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing Mr Lonely.
” Needless to say some details were changed, but the resulting affair was perhaps even more spectacular than the queen of snark would have hoped for. Along with performances from Hugh Jackman and Broadway star Audra McDonald, it featured a eulogy from notorious shock-jock Howard Stern and the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus singing Big Spender. The bagpipers of the New York police department played as mourners escorted her body from the synagogue.
View image in fullscreen Hunter S Thompson’s ashes go up in smoke in Colorado in August 2005. Photograph: Peter Mountain/AP Whether you would like to be shot across your favourite vista in the form of a firework (à la Hunter S Thompson), compressed into a diamond or spin forever as vinyl , recording your wishes and sharing them with those closest to you can be a balm to loved ones during one of the most emotionally charged times of their life. The rise in so-called “death positivity” , along with the mortal reality check wreaked on us by the pandemic, has helped to reframe death as a part of life for many of us.
Taboos around discussing death are breaking down and planning your own funeral is i.