february-many-locations-diary-sep25-1

8 February 2026

Many locations

I keep returning to the number of places a family has to deal with after someone dies.

The body, the arrangements, the prayers, the ashes. Knowing what comes next seems like work in itself. I want somewhere where someone has thought about these things already.

But the journey is not only an inconvenience. Going home, leaving home, travelling together: I cannot assume that removing movement removes the difficult part.

Maybe I am trying to reduce the unfamiliar places, rather than gather every part of a funeral into a single route.

Then I start thinking about what happens afterwards. Whether I keep the ashes or let them go. Whether there is somewhere I would want to return to. I want the deceased to have a story that can remain part of living, privately or with others.

These questions sit together for me. I do not yet know whether they need the same space.

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Threads present: ritual participation and choice · memory and return.

These are traces here. Their longer readings will open later.

Continue in Time: 9 February.

Source basis: existing publication diary.