The Afterlife of Paperwork

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Dying in the UK is rarely a private event. Even at the most tender bedsides, there is a system in the room.

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In this essay, drawn from a paper I presented at the Centre for Death and Society conference at the University of Bath last month, I explore three places where institutional power becomes visible at the end of life: access, language, and time. And I ask what families carry forward when the conditions of the death are shaped as much by systems as by love.

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This essay continues over on Grief in Translation, my Substack publication for reflective writing on grief, loss, death, and the human experience.

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You can read the full piece here: substack.com/@griefintranslation

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