Hannah Thorogood - Humanist Funeral Celebrant

06/10/2020

What to expect when attending a funeral service at the moment....
Planning a funeral is hard enough but doing it during Covid can be even more daunting... You are allowed 30 people to attend if it is an indoor service. Most crematoria are set up to be able to record or livestream the service. You can expect chairs to be removed and placed apart from each other in small household / bubble groupings. You will be required to wear a mask and you can expect the chapel attendant and funeral directors to wear black masks and gloves. The celebrant does not need to wear a mask while doing the service. This can all feel distant and less human, at a time when we most need to feel the connection & support of others. But please know that under the masks & the other side of the 2m gap - there is love & support from all of those in masks x

04/05/2020

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-40716576/ghana-s-dancing-pallbearers-bring-funeral-joy This may not feel at all right to some folks planning a funeral. But sometimes people want a funeral to truly be a celebration of the life that was lived. It would be lovely in those circumstance to bring a bit of Ghanaian spirit to the day...

Pallbearers are lifting the mood in Ghana with flamboyant coffin-carrying displays.

11/09/2018

When someone we love dies, no-one can 'fix' it. It hurts, it will hurt. If others can sit beside us, hold our hands and acknowledge our pain, it can help. If you know someone who is greiving, it can be so hard to watch them hurt so much, but you can't take their pain away, however much you want to. Acknowledge their pain, it might need to swallow them up for a while, but it is ok, it shows their heart is far from broken - it is fully functioning in the way that it should.

06/03/2018

Mothering Sunday is only nine days away on 11th March. If you know someone who is missing their mother, or is a mother grieving for their child, please share these tips. It may provide some much needed support. In addition to the normal hours, the free Cruse National Helpline will be open from 10-19:00 on Mother's Day.

03/03/2018

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-43227108/why-grief-is-not-something-you-have-to-get-over Some really useful wise words to hear if you or someone you know is grieving x

Grief is something that nearly all of us will experience and it's not something you have to "get over".

12/02/2018

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-derbyshire-43007038/why-i-spent-six-days-with-my-wife-s-body It is a little known fact, that if you want to, you can keep your loved one at home with you after they have died....

Russell Davison, who did not want her body to go to a mortuary, is challenging attitudes to dying.

25/12/2017

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-42457081/grief-at-christmas-how-do-you-cope-when-you-ve-lost-a-loved-one

Three mothers talk about how they cope at Christmas after their sons died.