Month: May 2018

My grandparents wanted to die at home.
My grandmother took honour in the fact that my grandfather died at home. When my grandmother’s time had come, I also took pride in being next to her on her deathbed at home.
I even laid next to my her in her last days, just holding and talking to her.
People get uncomfortable when I tell this story, but this is definitely not how I experienced it.
Due to the fact that they were home in the same bed that they were sleeping in ever since I can remember-
because I could accompany them and I was part of the process I experienced it as a peaceful event. Painful, and nevertheless serene .

The Wailers; ‘an occupation of loss’ that is also a lost occupation (in our western society), as I never heard anyone lamenting in a funerals I attended. If the deceased was young, there were some soft tears somewhere in the back of the funeral home. Tayrn Simons was researching the primal universal sounds of mourning lamenting for seven years. His historical, ethnographical and cultural research resulted in a performance. Where musician and singers from Armenia till Cambodia were wailing, singing and crying in an underground cavern in London. You can read more in:

The Gauardian

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/apr/18/taryn-simon-occupation-loss-review-islington-green-london-underground-mourners-grief

NRC

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2018/04/23/duister-theater-vol-huilende-professionele-rouwers-a1600480