Big Love Ceremonies & Counselling

02/03/2026

💙

01/03/2026

WE HAVE OFFICIALLY WELCOMED TERRY TO THE BIG LOVE TEAM.
✨
From the website:
For 27 years, Terry has supported people to feel and function at their best through remedial massage & coaching, working with elite teams including the Brisbane Lions, the Wallabies, and the Australian Dolphins swim team, aaand attending four Olympic Games.
For Terry, supporting people to move well has always been about supporting them to live well.
As Jo’s husband, he has witnessed her celebrate life and love for many years, so moving into celebrancy felt natural.
With a long history of public speaking, Terry is a confident and engaging speaker (a true extrovert at heart).
Terry first officiated a ceremony when he stepped in at short notice to perform a wedding ceremony for a close friend after Jo was unexpectedly unable to. (Most of you remember BeeGate of 2024)
He delivered it with warmth, ease & natural humour.
His introduction to funeral work, however, began much earlier - at six years of age, when his father worked as an undertaker and the family lived in a funeral home.
From this young age, he understood that death is not something to shy away from, but is a natural part of life, and something to honour with care.
Terry brings presence, strength, compassion, humour and an ease with people that makes them feel supported and understood.
Having navigated grief himself, Terry brings that understanding to his work, & brings a lovely & caring masculinity to our Big Love offerings.

~ ~~

Terry now has a few funeral services under his belt and has commented each time at how humbled he is to be part of such tender & important times in people’s lives.

Get in touch if you’d like Terry to support you in an
end-of-life ceremony.

27/02/2026

"Not Now"

25/02/2026

I made a friend at a Dying to Know Day event many years ago.
We met at the time I had started immersing myself in this industry.
I was fired up, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, hungry for experience, keen to make connections.
This woman listened to my impassioned ramblings about death care, gave me her business card and told me to contact her. Which I did.
Our connection was born of serving families at their most distraught.
Side-by-side we witnessed and experienced all the tragic, beautiful, weird & wonderful parts of funerals and end of life ceremonies.
She entrusted me with families who needed lots of extra care and loving attention.
And, we became friends.
We laughed together. We got frustrated together. We cried together.
I cried when she told me she was pregnant.
I cried when I held her baby for the first time.
I cried when she recently told me she had terminal cancer.
I cried after spending the day with her & her incredible 4 year old daughter.
I cried on Sunday when her partner called to tell me she had died.
I want to pay tribute to her here, on this page because it may not exist without her - how will I ever know?
What I do know is that she saw something in me and she gave me a chance. And she gave me the confidence to continue.
She really was the one who helped me get my proper and sure footing in this work I love so much. Without her I’m not sure where I’d be.
She was fierce, funny, strong, proud.
I am so very sad she’s gone.
I’m on holiday at the moment, and was sitting on the beach with my daughter when the call came through.
When the call ended, in the middle of my tears, I looked down on the sand to see a little feather. I know it was from her.
Then a storm rolled in, of course.
The last words she said to me were, “I love you so much”
My last words to her, “I love you too”
I thought we had just a little bit more time.
But I am so grateful for what we had, and for her influence on my life.
Rest well, Chusie.
You are the storm.

24/02/2026

🫶🏻

23/02/2026

Perhaps a little too ?

18/02/2026

At the Big Love Death Cafe last week, we discussed (among many other things) where we would like to hold our funeral/memorial should we have the choice.
Every person in attendance said outdoors, by the ocean.
Have you ever thought about this?
Have you discussed these preferences with your people?
If not, I would encourage you to do so.

17/02/2026

16/02/2026

Imagine yourself entering this ceremonial space.
Vibing up our entrance to this ceremony, intentionally planned by T herself before her passing, was Trish.
Also planned by T herself were the chairs situated in a spiral, grass underfoot, in the fresh air, under the canopy of these magnificent old trees.
As often happens during these gatherings, a curious kookaburra hung around for most of the ceremony.
T knew she was a daughter of Gaia - she wanted her people to know they were being held and supported by The Great Mother as they grieved & celebrated her. 🍃🌱🌏✨🫶🏻

16/02/2026

It will always be strange to me how comfortable people are judging the way a parent grieves their own child.

Imagine watching a parent survive the worst thing imaginable and deciding they’re not doing it right.

As if there’s a rulebook for parents burying their children.
As if there’s a timeline to get over it.
As if there’s a “correct” way to deal with walking out of a hospital room with empty arms.

What’s strange is not the way I grieved.
What’s strange is the way people felt entitled to talk about it like they would do it all differently.
“I would never post that”
“I can’t believe she did that”
“I wouldn’t handle it that way”
You don’t know what you would do.
And I pray you never have to find out.

You do not get to critique the way someone crawled out of hell.

You do not get to decide it was “too much” or “not enough.”
Too public.
Too quiet.
Too angry.
Too emotional.
Too fast.
Too slow.

When someone is walking through the worst season of their life, they are not wondering if they’re doing it right. They are thinking about survival. About making it to tomorrow. About holding themselves together with whatever thread they can find.

And it is so insanely arrogant to stand at a distance and analyze the way they did it when you have no idea what it costs someone to get out of bed after their world falls apart. You don’t know what it took for them to post that photo. Or show up to that event. Or smile in that room. Or avoid that party. You don’t know what their nights look like. You don’t hear the silence they sit in.

You are seeing a fraction. And if you have never stood in their exact fire, you do not get to critique how they walked through it.

There is something deeply human about coping imperfectly. About grasping for light in ways that don’t always make sense to other people. About surviving in ways that are messy and visible or messy and invisible.

What’s not human is turning someone else’s tragedy into a topic of conversation.

If you don’t understand how someone is getting grieving, that’s okay. But judging it says more about you than it ever will about them.

Some people are just trying to stay alive.
Let them.

12/02/2026

My fellow Deathies… Tuesday evening is the Big Love Debrief for newer celebrants & death-care workers.
A couple of spots still available. Book via link in bio 💛

05/02/2026

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