Latansani

06/11/2024

What difference would it make today if the world looked like this?
Oh…wait…it does!

03/11/2024

Oh my!

Introducing the 2024 charity Christmas video and advert, inspired by the heartwarming John Lewis Christmas adverts. The charity single, "Send Me a Sign," has...

11/09/2024

This month is su***de prevention month and yesterday was World Su***de Prevention Day… I will be honest… I thought about not being here myself when I experienced an existential crisis so profound a…

07/09/2024

I’ve been thinking much about community and the power of social media to help or to harm.

I led the funeral service for my friend’s 16 year-old granddaughter on Wednesday - killed in a car crash…the worst and best thing I’ve done for a while.

But the social media stuff around it was admirable and despicable in equal measure. It has been high profile on many public and personal accounts, news sites and so on. There has been so much support for the family on the one hand…but horrific trolling on the other.

Just prior to the service, someone put a social media post out, with a link to the live service and a donation button for the funeral fund…it looked very authentic, as personal images and information had been used. In the space of a few minutes, 140 people accepted a friend request; I can’t see how much the scammers have raised - I reported it in an instant but the damage was already done. Many who saw it immediately accepted the integrity of the post.

You can imagine the harm - there is nothing helpful in that act.

Look through this post - we have so many extremes: help or harm, best and worst, admirable and despicable, public and personal, love and hate, integrity and falseness, honour and corruption.

Posting anything can either be a way of spreading love and making connection - a powerful way to support people and to shape positive change…

Alternatively, it is the graffitied toilet wall from my youth, with global impact!

01/09/2024

07/08/2024

Celebrants can make such a difference, not just to how a service unfolds, but also to how you feel about saying goodbye! We don’t appear in the Co-op data and yet we can make such a big contribution - our conpassion, dedication and support is invaluable to giving a bespoke and meaningful service!

one of the biggest chains of nationwide funeral directors (Kate T was recently on Radio 4's The Bottom Line with their CEO) has produced a comprehensive report into funeral trends... But they seem to have forgotten something...
😮There is no mention of funeral celebrants!!
😮The report lists florists, vehicles, dress codes and music choices... But who is creating and delivering the service? Not a word on them!
😮They list alternative locations for funerals and celebrations of life and living celebrations....
😮Whilst you won't need a funeral director for a celebration of life or living funeral (there's no body) - you would be wise to have someone to structure, write, deliver and stage-managed the event, be that family member, faith leader or, of course, professional celebrant. ♥️
😮And remember you can book a celebrant directly (no need to go through a funeral director)
♥️Also, there are as many different types of celebrant as there are dead people...
♥️Coffin Club's amazing Celebrant-plus celebrants range from committed atheists, to interfaith, pagan, unspecified spiritual and beyond. We have celebrants with additional skills and qualifications such as end of life doulas or grief counsellors or who specialise in living funerals ♥️
♥️We actually feel really sad that celebrants, who are the heart of a funeral service and an important source of support for bereaved people, were, once again, entirely overlooked.😕
Come on, Co-op, could do better.

Shout out to amazing Lincolnshire celebrant for alerting us to this injustice!!

training

31/07/2024

23/06/2024

Today’s fabulous wedding couple - they came to hear the script for their wedding in six weeks’ time. They cheers’d with two chocolate eclairs because that’s what they shared when their love story started…in lockdown! No Barnard Castle for them but a co-op car park and a two meter gap! Love knows no bounds! ❤️‍🔥

04/06/2024

I have some wonderful events coming up!

15/04/2024

This article is wonderfully provoking; it suggests a reframing to accept that it is a ‘privilege’ to be present at a death.
We so need to re-think end of life in every respect:
from the care we give to assist with it; to the way we talk about it, to prepare for it; to the rituals we can reinvent in order to celebrate it!

I have received many lovely messages in the weeks since my dad died – including one that will always stay with me, writes Adrian Chiles

02/03/2024

I had to have a calming conversation with a family member just yesterday; he is in a partnership – a civil partnership actually – but he has become more dependent on his partner recentl…

01/03/2024

In my daily ‘goings about’ yesterday, I passed one of our local bridal shops…it has a double window, beautifully lit, displaying an array of sparkling, elegant dresses in all colo…

27/02/2024

Changes to the three hundred year old laws mean that independent celebrants will become recognised as ‘Officiants’ just as we are in many other countries around the world! Spread the word, to make marriage equitable, inclusive and non-discriminatory for all in the UK!

14/02/2024

Don't just plan the ring and the proposal - book your celebrant!🥰

01/02/2024

23/10/2023

Two news items today endorse the need for Celebrants to be made official!
1. Government officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) and complex algorithms to help decide who should have their marriage licence approved.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/23/uk-officials-use-ai-to-decide-on-issues-from-benefits-to-marriage-licences?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

2. Bots are being used to write funeral services!