Happy Sunday Afternoon!
We have had an exhausting week but it has been made incredibly worthwhile by all of you – the people we have met have gone a long way to prove to us once again what an incredibly important job we are doing.
Everyone has a story, and overwhelmingly it is a story of something not quite right. Death not done well. A journey from grief to bereavement that was unhealthy and unhelpful. Thank you all for sharing your stories and experiences, through talking about these things we can all learn so much. To the little boy who told me about his dad who died a few weeks ago, to the parents who shared their story about their daughter loosing her fight with cancer, to the nurses who shared their experience in the palliative and critical care space, to the elderly man who shed a tear with me about his mum, to the young parents we spoke to who had suffered stillbirth…. thank you. Thank you for your bravery, for your words of support, encouragement and solidarity for our cause.
We do not do death well in this country. That’s not to say that we can’t. Or shouldn’t.
Our vision is to reach a point that when someone dies in a nursing home or hospital, the question is not ‘which funeral home do we call?’ but ‘do you want to use a funeral home?’ Families should know that they are not completely powerless in the face of the death of a loved one. They do not have to ‘hand everything over’ to anyone and if they choose to engage a funeral home, it can be to do as much or as little as they choose. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what choice a person makes – as long as it is an informed one. We are happy to talk people through their options then assist and support them in those choices – we believe this is all a part of helping people become informed and empowering them to make the right choice for them.
By becoming comfortable with the conversation of death and dying people can become educated around their right and options – something that has emotional, social and financial benefits at the end of the day.
Over the last four days we have been having these conversations time and again and while some have found it hard and confronting, we have been met with a consistent level of interest and amazement and a real desire for people to know more.
To all of you who said ‘keep up the good work’ and ‘don’t stop spreading this message, it is too important’ …. we wont.
Bec and Edwin x