Farewell Ringo Clark
Saturday, October 3, 2009 
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh was one of my favourite novels at school. Written in 1948, it satirises the American way of death - in particular, the funeral business in Los Angeles.
I was reminded of it today when we popped round to the vet to collect the ashes of one of my daughter's pet rabbits who, sadly, died a couple of weeks ago.
To avoid any confusion we were given a white box with the name "Ringo Clark" written in large capital letters on the outside.
Inside the white box was a smaller green box with a white flower on top. Inside the green box was a small plastic bag containing Ringo's ashes. ("Is that it?" said Sophie.)
We were also given a card ("With Deepest Sympathy") certifying that "your beloved pet Ringo was individually cremated on 22 September 2009."
The card, which features a line drawing of another flower, offers "heartfelt condolences for your loss" plus a short poem:
"Your presence we miss,
your memory we treasure.
Loving you always,
in our thoughts forever."
As I write Ringo Clark's ashes are on the window sill in the sitting room where they will stay until my daughter decides what to do with them.
They could be there for some time.
Reader Comments (3)
Decline and Fall was far, far better.
RIP Ringo
This is a most peculiar post.
It juxtaposes the practices of the US funeral industry (for humans?) with the English industry of disposing of the dead bodies of pets.
I think that Simon has a deeper thought in this post than first meets the eye, It may be that Simon is asking questions about LIFE.
Whoever wrote that ghastly poem needs to be given lessons in scansion !
Nonetheless:
RIP, Bunny.................