Every Days A School Day…

It’s been a very challenging time over the last 21 months for everyone, not least us as funeral directors.  We are often told that we are doing a good job under difficult conditions, and asked “how are you coping with all these new rules”?  Doing a good job to us means adapting to the challenges that face us, and still putting our families first.  

A classic was when we could only have limited numbers of family attending a funeral, so our idea was that if the family and friends couldn’t come to the service, we would take the their loved one to them.  

This will explain why you may have seen us travelling around the village in the hearse, taking a loved one on their last tour around Wroughton to allow friends, family & colleagues to pay their own last respects.

This has proved especially popular with our wonderful care homes in the village, where the carers do not have the time or ability to attend the funeral, but they do enjoy being able to pop out to say goodbye to someone whom they have formed a relationship with.

New things we’ve learnt…

So, what else have we learnt from the imposition that is Covid-19?  We now find the registration process a lot easier and quicker than pre Covid, especially as families do not have to attend the Registry Office.  It’s lovely to see your faces when we tell you that you don’t need to go into town!!!

Another improvement has to be the relaxation of the need for a second Doctor to sign the medical papers, this was always a rubber stamp process to comply with the post Shipman problems – lets just hope that both these processes will be kept In place now.  We the funeral profession, are certainly lobbying the government to keep both systems in place as we believe this is better and less stressful for you our families.

We are now seeing a relaxation of the restrictions, which is helping us all, in fact when I went into the North Wiltshire Crematorium recently, I saw that the full set of seats were back where they belong, and my eyes filled with tears knowing that we could once again return to full chapels, and some sort of normality.

Yes, things are moving back to where we want them, but we still need to stay safe and look after each other.

Until the next time, may your God watch over you and please stay healthy.

A Happy Christmas to you all and your loved one’s names will be on the wall this week.  Big hugs, Jem & Karen.