28/11/2024
I love my job so much for so many different reasons, but I especially love it for the serendipitous moments that come along every now and again that take me by surprise.
I’ve been working as a Celebrant for a long time now, it’ll be 12 years at the beginning January, and I regularly get booked by families who have used me before, or who have been to one of my services in the past, or - as was the case for a service I took earlier this week - I’ve been personally recommended to a family by someone they know.
As I took down the details of the family when the booking came through…I realised that I had been to junior school with one of the daughters of the gentleman who had died, and it was both lovely and a little surreal getting to see her for the first time in over 40 years!
It was a service with a difference as it was held at and it meant that we had no time constraints and were able to include lots of tributes and memories from family and friends. And there was also the most incredibly special and moving musical tribute I’ve ever experienced…
It had always been a family tradition at parties for guests to gather around the piano, listening to old war-time songs, and when it got to ‘We’ll Meet Again’…it was a case of napkins at the ready and everyone would wave them in the air as they sang along. And so, to bid Roger farewell during his service, there were tears and laughter as the 180 people there waved white linen napkins aloft as we all sang along with ‘s incredible rendition of ‘We’ll Meet Again’.
Funerals are always going to be sad and difficult when you’re saying goodbye to someone you love…but there can also be joy and gratitude as you celebrate all that they mean to you; and Roger’s family certainly celebrated him in a way that more than did him proud, and it was such an honour to be part of it.
[A big thank you too to Ellie and Laura of Benjamin A. W. Lymn The Family Funeral Service, and the team at Branston for working so hard to make it such a special service]
