It’s not always appropriate to celebrate a life, and it would be wrong to think that’s what a humanist funeral ceremony has to be.
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In memory of Alasdair Knox
I’ve only just come across this post, which dates from September 2014. I didn’t share it at the time because I thought it might be insensitive, but I’m doing so now not so much because time has passed, but because it reminds me so acutely why it’s so important to honour those we love. Appropriately … Continue Reading
No day shall erase you from the memory of time
It’s almost exactly a year ago to the day since my wife Susie and I visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York, where we saw this mural. The phrase is a quotation from Book IX of Virgil’s Aeneid, and it struck me then and now that immortality exists as long as there is memory. It’s … Continue Reading
A celebrant’s role is not always about celebration
I was pleased to see my article in The Scotsman earlier this week: if you’d like to read it please click here
Are we mourning or celebrating?
I’ve been a celebrant for a dozen years now, and over that time, the character of funerals has undoubtedly changed. Two years ago, the BBC ran this story based on an ICM survey, in which it found that 54% of people wanted a ceremony that was ‘a celebration of life’. Almost as many wanted to … Continue Reading
Grieving: it’s time for Option B
I was very moved by this interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in The Observer, where she talks about how she coped with going to sleep beside her 47 year old husband, and waking up to discover that he was dead.Journalist Decca Aitkenhead is one of our best writers, and while she wasn’t entirely won … Continue Reading
A celebration of the life of Bob Barclay, 1954 – 2014
It’s easy to forget that our lives are getting longer. The average life expectancy when I was born in the 1950’s was 65: now men can expect to live to 78 and women a further four years, to 82. And most deaths come at the end of a long life: they may be sad, they may come … Continue Reading