There is an interesting opinion published in the Daily Telegraph today about Memorial Services. The article seems to have been prompted by last Sunday's National Day of Mourning:

SUNDAY'S national day of mourning is not the end of the grieving process for those involved in the Black Saturday bushfire tragedy.

As moving as the huge ceremony at the Rod Laver arena may have been, and it can be easily argued there were too many officials and bureaucrats, the reality is those who lost family and friends, homes and property will be forever scarred.

It is convenient for many to claim that such rituals hasten a process called closure but closure doesn't exist except in the minds of those who hope to shut a file, seal a court document, bring an end to an investigation.

As Christopher Hall, a psychologist and the director of the National Centre for Grief and Bereavement, told me: "The cultural desire for closure belies the true nature of loss (which is) a lifetime process."

Read on here...