I was born and bred in Liverpool but have spent most of my adult life in Southport.  I originally trained as a teacher before spending the rest of my career in the civil service.  Since retiring from full-time work, I’ve not been short of things to do, either in terms of paid or voluntary activities, but being a humanist celebrant was never on my personal radar.

I went through a spell, lasting several months, when I found myself going to funerals of friends, family and former colleagues almost on a weekly basis. Most of the services were, for want of a better term, ‘par for the course’. They were suitably solemn, often tearful and, very occasionally, touching.

A couple of services stood out for different reasons. One, a religious service, was truly awful. There was very little said about the deceased and the emphasis was very much on the religious ritual. This was undoubtedly what the family wanted but many of my friends – including those who held religious beliefs – found the service as impersonal as I did.  We learned little about our friend and his life. We heard nothing about what he loved and what his family though of him.  It was almost as if any mention of his life and loves was an afterthought.

A few months later, I attended the funeral of a friend’s mother. The service was such a contrast to the funerals I’d attended previously.  It told her life story in some detail and painted a wonderful picture of her, which prompted a mixture of tears, smiles and laughter from everyone present. Afterwards, I sought out the celebrant to tell him how much I’d enjoyed the service, something I’d never done before. It turned out that he was a humanist celebrant, accredited by Humanists UK.

Something clicked that day and I knew instantly that this might be something I could do.  I contacted Humanists UK and went through a rigorous selection and training process with them. Nine years on, I’m an experienced accredited celebrant, conducting funeral services in the Southport area, usually at the Southport and West Lancashire crematoria. It’s proved to be a life-enhancing role for me and I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way,

If you need a non-religious funeral ceremony, I will meet with you – more than once, if needed, to discuss the structure of the ceremony, what it contains by way of music and readings and how best to describe and celebrate the life of the deceased. I find it a real honour to sit down with a family and listen to them talk about their loved one so soon after they have gone. I’ve usually met them knowing nothing about their loved one apart from their name, age and date of death and invariably walk away with a real sense of who they were, how their life had been and how much they meant to their family.

My job is then to transform what they have said into a funeral service that has the structure and content the family wants, usually celebrating the life of the deceased and giving some sense of closure. These are always going to be sad occasions but I’m often struck by how much laughter and good humour I find at humanist funerals. The feedback I receive from family and friends is immensely rewarding and it’s wonderful to hear people say that they’ve never been to a humanist funeral before but they now want one for themselves or their mother or whatever.

If you’re not sure what you really want – or you just want to find out a little more about humanist funerals generally – give me a call and I’ll meet with you, with no obligation on your part at all.