I hope the following thoughts and comments I’ve received will speak for themselves.

S, L and I would like to send you a huge thank you for writing such a celebratory and personal eulogy and for such a beautiful delivery. So many people commented afterwards about how touching you made it and how well you put it across. You are such a warm person and we feel privileged to have met you.

Thank you for conducting C’s funeral service. The order of service you put together was just right, from speaking of C’s life, her loves and her achievements to the quotations and poems. You spoke beautifully and sensitively and helped smooth what had to be the worst day of our lives.

I am writing on behalf of the whole family to thank you for leading Mum’s funeral last week. Frankly, we were dreading it, but seeing you there – calm, warm and kind – steadied us and helped us through it. We’re so glad we chose a Humanist funeral. We’re not a religious family and it was consoling that the thoughts you expressed reflected our own beliefs. But they did more than that… they lifted our loving tribute to a spiritual level. Saying goodbye to Mum was hard, but all of us will have positive memories of the day. We feel that with your support we did the very best we could.

Thank you for all you did to help me before the dedication and for the way you conducted the service. I could not have done this without you. It all went better than I could have dreamed.

We would like to thank you very much for enabling us to make J’s funeral such a celebration of his life. Your commitment to learning about him from his family and friends and pulling all the threads together was immensely helpful. Many people commented on the warmth of the ceremony and we feel this was due to many factors, not least the part you played.

We had several comments from people who had never attended a Humanist service before saying how much more appropriate it felt to centre the occasion on the person who has died rather than fitting some details about them into a religious service. I would like to thank you for your kindness and thoughtfulness to us all. D died only a month after being diagnosed, and so we have had a lot to come to terms with in a short while. You have made it a little bit easier to bear.

I thought the ceremony was just perfect. This was my first experience of someone very close to me dying and the first time I have had to think about a funeral. I am so pleased it was you and glad I now know of the British Humanist Association.

Your response to meeting with my mother, with me, and absorbing the other input on the music and from friends was clearly reflected in your address. Everything somehow felt ‘right’ so that if I had to express it I would say that Mum was there with us, quite peacefully, taking it all in and acknowledging its truth.

I feel very moved by your contribution to J’s funeral on Friday. You paid him and his family a huge compliment by taking so much time to get the ceremony just right. We all felt that it seemed as if you knew him, so appropriate were your words, tone and delivery. We will never forget the ceremony and you have helped us to move forward with J still very firmly in our hearts and minds. You helped us all to celebrate his wonderful life and the legacy he left behind.

The funeral ceremony of my dear Mum was absolutely excellent… You made it warm, friendly and intimate and I could not wish for a better ‘send-off’ for her. You took great care in preparation and this showed through in the ceremony. So we wish to thank you so much for making what could have been a sad and miserable occasion into something a great deal more welcoming.

You have helped us all through a very difficult time and I can’t thank you enough. It was truly a celebration of K’s life and I shall be eternally grateful.

Thank you so much for conducting A’s ceremony – it was beautiful, poignant and absolutely touched the right note… You made a very difficult task bearable with your kind understanding, and gentle encouragement. We all feel that you presented our A just as he was – and just as he might like to think of himself!

As soon as you started speaking I knew it was going to go well. You have a real gift for speaking and the way you brought everything together encapsulated Dad’s life so well. So many people gave lovely comments about the service afterwards.

I just wanted to say thank you for your help with my Mum’s funeral.  You managed to do exactly what I’d wished for, to make a space at the funeral that was accessible, useful, safe, comforting for everyone there, and respectful to my Mum.  We were lucky to find you. You made a difficult time easier for us.

Many thanks for your fantastic hosting of Dad’s funeral service yesterday. It was exactly as I had hoped for. The story you created around the anecdotes and the audio made it sound is if you were a long-term family friend. Many people who attended said the same. Of course, there were a few teary eyes but some welcome chuckles too. Above all, I am grateful for your thorough professionalism during a difficult time and I know my Dad would have admired that too.