After the Worst has Happened: Tales from a funeral director on the lighter side of death

(Paperback)

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When Richard Gosling's young daughter faced emergency surgery, a colleague carelessly asked what would happen if she died. In that moment, Richard was forced to picture his own daughter's funeral, and the people who are there to help families after the worst has happened.


Aged 40, Richard left his job in the public service and started preparing coffins, driving hearses, assisting in the mortuary and bringing in the deceased from hospitals and nursing homes, slowly working his way up to become operations manager of a venerable Sydney funeral home.



After the Worst Has Happened lifts the curtain on a world we all try to avoid but must pass through. It shows the lighter side of death amid all its other facets, as Richard steers families through heartbreak, anger and grief while holding space for love and acceptance. Ultimately, it's about how extraordinarily beautiful it can be to spend a daily life surrounded by our final rite of passage.

Author Bio

Richard is a husband, father and funeral director. His time is devoted either to his work, at which he clocks way more hours than he should, or to his children and the occasional book in the back garden.


Born in the UK, Richard moved to Sydney twenty years ago after marrying his Australian wife. He has been a funeral director for ten years, appearing in the 2018 SBS documentary The Secret Life of Death. He has also been interviewed on ABC radio multiple times about his job and the profound satisfaction it brings him.