Advice, guides & articles

The graves of well known people offer us a link to history, a chance to feel closer to people we have heard of but will never get a chance to meet, as we can see where they lived and died, and their graves allow us to pay our respects to them and everything they accomplished in life. Here are some of the most famous graves that can be found here in the UK.

In recent years, the use of physical money has declined significantly, as more and more people turn to using cards and online bank transfers to manage their finances. And when Coronavirus arrived in our lives a little over 12 months ago, the decline of coins and notes accelerated even faster, as for sanitation reasons we all tried to avoid unnecessary contact with pretty much everything - cash included. When someone dies, it’s always been customary to leave a donation to their charity of choice. Traditionally, this was done one of two ways: either leaving cash in a donation box at the funeral or wake, or posting cash to the funeral director who would in turn pass it on to the charity in the deceased’s name. The last year has seen well over 100,000 people die of Coronavirus in the UK alone, which means there has unfortunately been many opportunities to make donations in memory of someone who we’ve lost. But how does that work in a ‘post-cash’ world? And what are the best ways to go about doing this? In today’s blog, I’m going to try and answer that question, and explain how you can easily make a cashless donation in someone’s memory.

Grief is such an intimate personal experience, that it is my belief that nobody can really say ‘I know how you feel’ or ‘just follow these steps to feel better’, but sometimes simply knowing others have gone through similar experiences and struggles (no matter how different) can make you feel less like you’re tackling this on your own.

Monday 17th May marked another milestone in the United Kingdom's roadmap out of Coronavirus restrictions, with various rules being relaxed and a slight amount of normality beginning to resume. One of the sectors which has seen an alteration in restrictions is funerals. But what are the changes? In this blog I'm going to detail the UK's current funeral guidelines.

A lot of us may feel like finding the time and get-up-and-go to have a hobby is just another thing on our to-do list. Between work, school, family, friends and chores a hobby might seem impossible to add to our hectic lives. Hobbies let us escape our everyday lives and experience the things we love or would like to do more or find out about. Having a hobby can create/build new skills, make friends with like-minded people and also escape mentally. They can help you turn off ‘work mode’ and also the feeling of repetition in daily life. It might feel overwhelming adding another thing to your lists of things to do but hobbies are known to relieve stress and improve mental health.

You may have heard of the idea that grief comes in stages, the current model being seven stages of grief. It may not be like this for everybody, as everyone grieves in different ways, but it gives a general idea of what grieving people go through. You may experience every stage on the list, or you may experience things that aren’t on the list. The original theory by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross only had five stages, the other two have been added recently to make a more complete idea of the process of grieving. It is important to remember that this model cannot be applied to everyone, and if you do not find it helpful in dealing with your grief then it is fine to turn to a different resource. So, what are the 7 stages of grief?

In normal times, the answer is a definite yes. You can either bury your pet in a cemetery - which is usually set up separately from a cemetery where humans are buried - or have them cremated. Most people opt for cremation for their pets, and then have their ashes scattered in a place that they loved. Some people will also choose to keep their ashes in an urn, often next to a photo of their beloved companion.

Here at funeral-notices.co.uk we believe that mental health is just as important as physical health, especially as we work in an environment so closely linked with grief and bereavement. So when we heard that it was time for the Mental Health Foundation’s annual Mental Health Awareness Week, we just had to get involved.

World Fair Trade Day was created by the World Fair Trade Organisation back in 2004, and since then has taken place on the second Saturday of May every year. It is a worldwide festival of events celebrating Fair Trade, used to highlight the objectives and achievements of the Fair Trade movement. Fair Trade is all about working together to fight against inequality and climate change, ensuring the positive wellbeing of both the planet and those who live on it. The aim is to create an economic and agricultural model that respects planetary boundaries, to encourage the fair sharing of resources, and to spread the belief that everyone in the world deserves decent wages and working conditions, regardless of where they live. After the effect that the pandemic has had on the world, and as we look to recover from it, the theme this year is to Build Back Fairer. It is not enough to go back to the old normal - we can use this as an opportunity to create a fairer and more sustainable tomorrow.

Today (Monday 3rd May 2021) marks May Day, a yearly bank holiday in the United Kingdom. Most of us associate it with a long weekend and a trip to the pub, but most of us have no idea what May Day actually is and why it’s celebrated (including me until I wrote this blog.) So then, what is May Day? And why is it celebrated on the first Monday of May each year? In today’s blog I’m going to answer those questions.