I write and deliver real life love stories.  

Sadly, not all our love stories are happy ones.

Sometimes they are heart breaking, especially when we are saying goodbye to a loved one.

I recently wrote and delivered a funeral service for an amazing lady, who was 98 years old.  She has lived an incredible life, a strong woman who adored her family, and they adored her. She was always learning, loving, sharing her skills, holidays and special occasions. She will never be forgotten.

It was my job to meet with her family to find out as much about her as possible to bring her to life once more for her service. It was an honour to be chosen to tell her story, and help her loved ones remember her together.

People often ask me, how do you not cry when doing funerals? They also think it is quite morbid way to earn a living.

I think the opposite, it is a privilege that families trust me in their most vulnerable moments, and as for tears, I feel their emotion, but it isn't my grief. It's not my place to show whether I'm upset seeing family members in tears. 

It's my place to honour their loved one in a professional, but empathetic manner. 

If I, as the celebrant delivering the service, was visibly upset or emotional, it takes away from the family's grief, and that would be wrong. It's their service, their loss, their love.

Families often want joy in the service, to celebrate the love they shared, and we include that too, little quirks they may have had that made them memorable, happy moments they shared with each other, and funny phrases they may have used.

Every emotion is important in a service, we are allowed to grieve, we are also allowed to smile, and laugh if the memory brings that to the forefront.  Each emotion is a side to our grief, we will all feel it in a different way. We are all human.

If you need someone who really cares, and really tries to get to the essence of the person you are saying goodbye to, please drop me a message or call 07401 974 880