Dad, you’ve been a funeral director for quite a long time now. Tell me about Living Weeks, because I have no clue what that is. Yeah, it’s a bit of a trend that’s happening at the moment, and it’s really just the last few years. And it’s about people having a funeral before they die. You know, a lot of people often say, why do we have a funeral when I’m dead? I’m not there to enjoy it. Let’s have a party beforehand. Most people don’t get themselves that well organized. But I was recently at a friend’s funeral home, and he had just done a Living Week, and it was marvellous. They partook in all the elements of a funeral. So they had flowers, they had tributes, they had photo shows, the person was honoured. They did it more like a meal where they sat round in tables, round tables, and each person got up to speak. They had an emcee, all the sort of elements you’d have at a funeral. And then the person died, and they really felt they’d done well. But the interesting thing is, they turned around and said, we thought we wouldn’t need a funeral because we had a Living Week. But actually, we’d like to repeat this, because they realized they were grieving. And so they repeated the whole process, but obviously without the deceased was there, but not as a Living Week. And they changed some of the tributes. You know, this particular person loved the way we talked about this. So let’s focus on this a bit more. A great way to celebrate, whether it’s a Living Week with a small private cremation later, or whether it is a Living Week as a party, but make sure you include all those elements, the visual, the kinesthetic, and the auditory. So seeing, doing, and hearing, all those important things of a funeral, also in a Living Week. They were quite cool, really.
