Shanley's Funeral Home

11/11/2025

Two of the best life quotes today. 🥰🥰🥰

10/11/2025

Dogs are loyal, noble, courageous and sometimes down right hilarious 😂. Discover 20 famous dog statues around the world and read up on their stories and the impact they have had on human lives. Our little local hero is Humphrey. His statue can be found along the Umhlanga promenade. Another interesting local hero is...Just Nuisance. His statue can be found in Simonstown and what a story that is. The first dog to be enlisted in the Royal Navy. The love that dogs bring to us is phenomenal. We see the huge impact they have on the elderly when dogs are introduced into the retirement homes, or when people visit with emotional support dogs. They bring a smile and a cuddle and a chuckle. LOVE DOGS 🩷🩷

06/11/2025

06/11/2025

Shanleys Funeral Home, located in Umbilo, has been proudly serving our community for over 37 years. As a family-owned business, we offer compassionate and personalized funeral services to meet your unique needs, whether it's a private cremation, a full church service, or a burial.

31/10/2025

Gratitude means many things to many people. It’s a word we often say as though we all understand it in the same way, yet what resonates deeply with one person may not with another. For me, as someone who has spent nearly fifteen years working in end-of-life care, who has witnessed over two thousand last breaths, gratitude has become something sacred and layered. It has been shaped by sitting beside those who are dying, by holding space for families preparing to say goodbye, and by learning again and again how fragile and precious this life really is.

Gratitude, in the context of death, means focusing on thankfulness for a loved one’s life and the time you had together, rather than solely on the pain of their loss. It’s appreciating their legacy, the lessons they taught, and the positive impact they had. This kind of gratitude helps us navigate grief, fosters resilience, and reminds us that love does not end where life does. There’s also a quiet, personal gratitude that comes from what mortality itself teaches us, the clarity it brings about what truly matters and the invitation it gives us to live more fully in the present.

Gratitude for life is the recognition and appreciation of the goodness that exists around us, both big and small, the kindness of others, the comfort of home, a shared laugh, the warmth of the sun on your face. It’s an active practice of noticing, of focusing on what is here rather than what is missing. It’s being thankful for the people and moments that enrich our days, even amid heartache or uncertainty. This practice doesn’t erase pain, but it can help us find peace and meaning within it.

I have learned that gratitude is both a feeling and a choice, a learned behavior we can nurture through reflection, through presence, and through simply saying thank you for another sunrise. But it’s also deeply personal. What I am grateful for may not be what someone else feels grateful for, and that’s okay. Gratitude cannot be forced or prescribed; it must be found and felt within each individual’s own heart, in their own time. Still, I believe it begins in the smallest of ways, in noticing what’s here, right now. So take a moment today to pause and notice, not what’s missing, but what’s here. Gratitude begins in that simple act of seeing.

xo
Gabby

You can find this blog here:
https://www.thehospiceheart.net/post/gratitude-through-the-lens-of-end-of-life-care

28/10/2025

27/10/2025

The hardest walk we will ever have to do.

21/10/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19x5UiL5n5/

A love letter from those who have passed on…

Take the love you have for me
And radiate it outwards
Allowing it to touch and impact others

Take the memory you have of me
And use it as a source of inspiration
To live fully, meaningfully and intentionally

Take the image you have of me in your mind
And allow it to fuel you
To take action
Seize the day
And be reminded of what is most important in life

Take the care you have for me
And let it remind you
To care for yourself fully
And shower yourself with your own love

And take the pain and grief you feel
Following my loss
And alchemize it into
Love, compassion and beauty

Build a castle
From the wreckage of my passing

And allow it to unlock your greatness and potential
And empower you to become more than you ever thought you were capable of being

And know that I can never truly leave you
And will always remain beside you
Watching over you in spirit
And that the love I have for you lives on
Through the connections you form
The kindness and compassion you share
And the future relationships and friendships you cultivate.

And until we are one day reunited
I will remain with you
Through the storms and chaos of life
And am always beside you
Walking with you, laughing with you, crying with you and smiling with you

And I am proud of you for being strong
I am proud of you for being brave
And I am proud of you for being you.

Words by Tahlia Hunter

Artwork by Márfy Art, Gabriella Márfy

14/10/2025

Matthew's bucket list includes registering at least 50 000 organ and tissue donors to help save as many lives as possible. Hero777 is his awareness page.