I’m glad that Kevin Toolis’s father taught him an invaluable lesson in “how to die” (In my father’s wake, Family, 9 September) but why is his article constructed around the narrative that the “Anglo-Saxon” world is in denial about death? Where is his evidence?
Having worked as a palliative care social worker with hundreds of dying patients and their families from many different backgrounds, I have never observed any difference in how the “Anglo-Saxons” approach death. Some face death head on and talk about it openly, others carry on as normal until the last minute, some are sad or angry or resigned – and so on.
Toolis states that Anglo-Saxons would be very shocked if deaths were announced on local radio. Would they? They might be bored because, as he admits, there are a lot of deaths each day in a city like London. More to the point we are no longer able to announce a death in the local newspaper, as was traditional, as they no longer exist. In the absence of such ways of recognising a death many people now take to social media to pay their respects to the dead.
Please don’t let’s have any more stereotyping of the Anglo-Saxons. It is disrespectful both to people trying to face their final illness with dignity and courage, particularly if they have not been fortunate enough to live to an old age, and to those seeking to support them in these harsh times of cuts in public services.
Suzy Croft
Norwich
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