“Deborah is a lovely generous caring person who listened so carefully to everything I said between my tears.”

The First Steps

You can get in touch with me directly via e-mail or by phone, or you can ask your Funeral Director to do this on your behalf.  I will then contact you to confirm necessary details and to arrange a time for us to meet.

The Family Meeting

This will, probably, take between one and two hours and I will, usually, come to you.  The aim of our meeting is to discuss the type and tone of ceremony you would like and to help me gain a picture of the person whose funeral we are planning.

Other family members and family friends can attend the meeting to share memories and stories.  I will record your words on my laptop and write them up as soon as I am able to.  This can then form the basis of your loved one’s eulogy, or tribute.

The tribute section can include content written and read by you or be a collection of contributions from others or, if you wish, I can write and read it on your behalf.  Sometimes, family ask me to write and read the opening section of the tribute – often biographical in content – and then family and friends contribute their own memories and stories; these can be read by me or by the authors.  We can also include poems and readings.  The tribute does not have to follow any set form and can be a mixture of any of the above suggestions. The only constraint is that of time; funerals usually last half an hour from entrance to exit of mourners.  For this reason, I do ask that I be given a copy of any words to be read by others; I will incorporate these contributions into a script so that nobody has to worry about printing and remembering to bring their contribution on the day.  It also means that I can step in and help, or finish, should the person reading become too emotional to carry on, which can, understandably, happen.

Even though the deceased may not have been religious, hence the choice of a Humanist ceremony, family members may feel more comfortable with some religious content such as playing a hymn or reading a passage from the bible and I am happy for such content to be included in the ceremony.

“A family member has religious beliefs which Deborah was considerate of.”

If you would like more information as to what to expect from me as a celebrant, the following link will take you to the Funeral Celebrancy Council’s Funeral Celebrant Accord which “defines the attributes and skills required of an excellent funeral celebrant and is intended to set the standards by which all celebrants offering funeral services should be measured.”

https://funeralcelebrancycouncil.org.uk/the-funeral-celebrant-accord/