Poetic Endings

10/12/2025

“I’m so sorry. There’s no heartbeat.”

Sometimes baby and pregnancy loss is acknowledged; sometimes it isn’t. It’s different for everyone - a highly nuanced kind of grief. Older generations dismiss it as ‘one of those things’, a private event that happens to so many women and is met with silence. But the data is brutal - one in four women will experience miscarriage at some point in their lives.

As my friend described, ‘It’s too messy, too emotional, too unbearable.”

But through my work, what I know is this - the power of holding collective space to acknowledge such a universal yet personal experience, can carry us through the messy, emotional unbearableness and hopefully out the other side.

It’s why I held a funeral to acknowledge the loss of my baby. It’s why I asked friends to show up to support me and to acknowledge their own losses in doing so. And it’s why I’m sharing this post now.

Thank you so much to who so sensitively photographed the ceremony as part of her project documenting rituals around funerals. And to all the people who supported me in putting together a heartbreaking yet beautiful ceremony for my baby.

Louise x

13/11/2025

Thank you so much to Frances and Alison for taking the time to write a testimonial of their experience with Poetic Endings.

Sometimes funerals are small and intimate, sometimes they’re huge and more like a west end musical!

It was such an honour for us to be involved in the funeral for the extraordinary Sylvia Young OBE and to witness all the love and admiration the world has for her.

Thank you for trusting us ♥️

05/09/2025

One of my favourite things about being a celebrant is our friendly local network, where we get a chance to take a step back from our day-to-day work to learn more about our industry and build relationships with our brilliant partners.

This week a group of us went to visit the wonderful to learn about their unique approach to funerals and to go behind the scenes in their beautiful funeral home.

Thank you so much to the team for taking the time to host us and for the thought-provoking conversation.

We’d love to meet with more partners in future - do drop me a message if you’d like to host us!

21/07/2025

This afternoon we’re taking a moment to enjoy these delicious ginger flapjacks and energy balls made for us by and her daughter Sofia, in the newly refreshed poetic garden (courtesy of ).

Sofia joined us for work experience last week. She helped out in the mortuary, attended a funeral and asked us lots of questions about life as a funeral director.

We’d like the recipe for your ginger flapjack please!

04/07/2025

We’re admiring this beauty (a Jaguar E type) which has appeared outside Poetic Endings in Forest Hill today. It looks beautiful against our pollinator party front garden flowers!

🚗 & 🌷

03/07/2025

🌿 We’re opening a second branch of Poetic Endings! 🍃

We’re thrilled to share that our second funeral home will soon be opening at 161 Kirkdale, right in the heart of Sydenham’s historic high street.

Since moving to Forest Hill in 2021, we’ve felt truly welcomed by the South East London community. Now, we’re honoured to extend our presence and care into Sydenham.

Kirkdale has been a high street since the 1820s, and we’re proud to be joining a vibrant community of independent shops and cafes including , , , , , , and many more.

There’s lots of work ahead to transform the space into a beautiful new funeral home — but we can’t wait to welcome you to our launch very soon. ✨

22/05/2025

I wanted to share this beautiful review we just received. It really encapsulates everything we try to do to support people through their grief and their trauma.

No other words from us needed 🥹

17/04/2025

We're so excited to be attending this inspiring conference organised by our friends Natural Endings. If you're interested in helping to progress the modern funeral movement, we'd love to see you there!

Funerals and rituals can be powerful in supporting bereaved people to begin to adjust to a new way of living with loss and love. They are often inhabiting a liminal place, so are amazing to work with due to their openness in their personal meaning making processes. This creative one-day conference will explore how we can co-create meaningful events that support and build upon this meaning making, and includes workshops from some of our favourite practitioners - Rosalie Kuyvenhoven Funerals and End-of-Life Services, Alexandra Derwen, Dead Good Legacies.

Funerals and rituals can be powerful in supporting bereaved people to begin to adjust to a new way of living with loss and love. They are often inhabiting a liminal place, so are amazing to work with due to their openness in their personal meaning making processes. This creative one-day conference e...

15/04/2025

We rarely share the lovely things clients say to us after the funeral, but J’s words really touched us. 🫶

14/04/2025

This morning we were at Dulwich Picture Gallery ()for the funeral of a woman who appreciated art. We used our trusted Obitus Maestro Lite system, which enables us to pop up at any venue and play music with the same ease as if we were at the crematorium. No Bluetooth speakers or Spotify playlists needed!

Our Maestro Lite has already been to some exciting alternative funeral venues, including (but not limited to!) the Horniman Museum & Gardens, Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park, Fitzrovia Chapel, Oaks Farm and various churches and cemeteries. But today is definitely uniquely impressive - surrounded by original art by Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Poussin. Jacqueline du Pré never sounded more glorious.

10/03/2025

This is Cat, distant cousin of the ‘s cat Toni. Cat is superintendent at . He enjoys watching the crematorium’s doves and geese, patrolling the grounds and overseeing funerals.

Cat refused to look at the camera for this photograph to be taken.

05/02/2025

🍄‍🟫🍃 Thank you to everyone who came along to Poetic Endings & Unruly Flowers yesterday for the unveiling of the world’s first living coffin, the Loop Living Cocoon™ 🍃🍄‍🟫

The coffin is a work of art, and a gift we can all make to nature when our time comes. Grown from mycelium (the root network of mushrooms) in just one week in ’s mushroom growing facility in Holland, the coffin then biodegrades in just 45 days, nourishing the soil around it. It’s also certified for cremation in the UK, and the most beautiful urn is available for the ashes.

We are absolutely delighted to be the first UK funeral director to have used and to offer, the wonderful range of Loop products. We hope many more will follow! We’re also delighted that people we’re supporting to arrange funerals are already choosing 🍄‍🟫!

This post is also a huge shoutout to our extraordinarily talented florist, Katie , who turned her floral studio into a forestscape so everyone could experience this groundbreaking innovation. The coffin looks so at home surrounded by moss (sustainably sourced), snowdrops, ferns and brambles carefully foraged from the local area. When the installation comes down, we’ll carefully plant everything in to enjoy the greenery for years to come.

Thank you also to who managed to capture the magic and beauty of the installation Katie created.

If you missed out yesterday, the coffin will be available tomorrow (Thursday) at 1pm with our dear friend and fellow progressive funeral director from and a talk from Bob, the inspiring founder of .

🍄‍🟫🍃