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Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
6 minute read
Traditional funerals are expensive. According to the Sun Life Cost of Dying Report, families spent an average of £4,056 in 2021 per funeral. This was only part of the cost, covering the cremation or burial fee, funeral director, doctor’s fees, and minister or celebrant to lead the ceremony. On average, a further £2,400 was spent on the memorial, the death and funeral notices, flowers, printed ceremony stationary, limousines, the venue, and catering for the post-ceremony gathering.
As the cost of living increases and budgets become tighter across the UK, the need to find such large sums can be daunting for lots of us. But fortunately, a celebration of life doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Here are eight low-cost, yet deeply meaningful celebration of life ideas that you and your family might like to consider after an unattended direct cremation has taken place:
Put a date in the diary when family and friends can gather in someone’s kitchen and spend the day cooking favourites dishes, cakes and pastries. Write down all the recipes in a notebook or save them digitally and when the cooking is done, enjoy the food and share the stories.
Making wine, cider or beer takes time. It is a slow process but for those who enjoyed a tipple, creating a few bottles in their name will be meaningful. And fun. You don’t even have to be an expert, there are plenty of hints and tips online which will show you how to add fruit (home-grown or otherwise) to pre-purchased alcohol. When the brew is ready, or on a special anniversary, invite family and friends to raise a glass and toast the life that was lived.
The digital age is great but nothing beats an old photograph. Gather family and friends together requesting, as you send the invite, that they bring their favourite photo/s of the person whose life you are celebrating. Before selecting which photos will go in the framed collage, hand the photos round so that everyone gets to see every single image. Talk about the times that are brought to mind. If the photos are old, explain to any young children who are present the history of the photo and how they are related to the picture. When everyone is ready, decide which photos will be used (take a vote if opinions differ) and create the collage. Tip: Try not to go digital — placing the photos carefully in the frame will not only be a calming, personal and therapeutic experience, it’s cheaper and the result will be amazing!
Take a walk with family and friends so that you can each find your perfect stone and explain to each other why you chose it. Later on, perhaps after a picnic lunch, decorate the stones you have gathered with indelible marker pens. For the non artistic, the decoration can be as simple as inscribing the initials of the life you want to remember on one side of the stone and the date they died or your initials on the other. Once the ink is dry, think about where you will keep your stone — somewhere you can see it every single day, on your bedside table or in the pocket of your favourite coat so that whenever you need to, you can pick the stone up, close your fingers around it and take a moment to remember.
Grab a copy of your loved-one’s favourite book (if possible, one they actually read and put on a bookshelf) and invite those who shared part of their life with your loved one. Once assembled — preferably around a favourite photo — make a cuppa, open the biscuit tin and take turns reading. Start at the beginning of the book, and if it takes longer than you thought because memories are shared, that’s OK. You can arrange to meet up again until you have read the book from cover to cover. Who knows, this might actually lead to the creation of a Memorial Book Club?
Read at Princess Diana’s funeral, Mary Lee Hall’s poem “Turn Again To Life” provides us unlimited inspiration for anyone who would like to honour a life by continuing on, or beginning charitable work. Financial donations are great but actually offering time, as an individual or as a family or group of friends, not only yields results for the chosen charity, it’s a bonding experience for those who participate. For those who helped the wider community in their lifetime, there can be no better way to pay tribute to their past good deeds than to complete their ‘unfinished tasks’.
Until recently ‘The Big Screen’ was a thing — in fact, for the baby-boomers it was the only thing. What could be nicer than getting together with your gang, cramming everyone onto the sofa and watching your loved one’s favourite movie whilst sharing their favourite snacks.
Or, if the person you are celebrating was crazy for anything small-screen related, how about creating a memorial tournament with a perpetual trophy that circulates between winners year after year? If the tournament was held on a birthday or other special date that would bring you all together at a poignant time, then all the better.
Perfect for gardeners and/or environmentalists. For many people planting a shrub, tree or plant is a life-affirming action. The process is calming: spade into earth, careful placement of a tender stem, gently pressing the soil with gloved hand and watering is not only satisfying, it’s a process that reconnects us with nature. When experiencing the loss of someone who was dear to you, planting or simply tending a garden can also provide an extra benefit because you will be reminded of the ever-turning cycle of life. Sharing this positive pastime with those who share your loss is even better — not only do you get time to talk to each other and view the results of your collective efforts and do something positive for the environment, as gardening is hungry work, it could provide the perfect excuse for a post-planting family picnic.
