Advice, guides & articles

Sadly, this week has seen us reach the grim milestone of 100,000 UK victims of coronavirus. According to WalesOnline: ‘More than a third of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week January 15 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate - the highest proportion since the pandemic began’. In today’s blog, we are going to take a look at one of the unsung heroes of the pandemic, the Funeral Director, and discover how they have had to adapt to changes and restrictions in the way they offer their vital services to grieving families.

Some people like to have everything prepared. They find it comforting to have their life organised so that they’re ready for any eventuality. But some take it a step further: by planning their own funeral. Most people prefer to leave proceedings to their families, but some people will have their own vision of how a funeral should go. If you’re one of those people, you may be asking yourself, where do I begin? In this blog, I’m going to look into how you would go about planning your own funeral.

2020 was a year during which we learned to appreciate the little things, whether that’s spending more time with family or reconnecting with old friends online, or it was having more time to spend tending to your garden or catching up with that pile of books you’ve been meaning to read. But perhaps the most nationally recognised appreciation went towards the NHS. We are lucky in the UK to have the NHS (you only need to look at the healthcare system in the US to see this), and this last year thousands of people took to their doorsteps at the same time and simultaneously acknowledged this great institution by applauding all those who work for the NHS. This appreciation was extended further in the form of donations. All NHS Trusts up and down the country are registered charities, and so anyone can donate money to help out or show support to their local hospitals. Here on funeral-notices.co.uk we give families the ability to donate to charity in memory of a passed loved one, and in 2020 we had over 2,100 individual donations made towards NHS charities.

Oxford Dictionary defines Blue Monday as the following: “a Monday on which one feels gloomy or dispirited, especially because one has to return to work after the weekend.” It then goes on to say that Blue Monday is: “(in the northern hemisphere) a Monday in January, typically the third Monday of the month, that is characterized as the most depressing day of the year.” As you may have noticed, the day this blog is being published is January 18th, also known as Blue Monday 2021! As this year, it’s even bluer than usual for most of across the UK – and indeed across the world – who are currently in lockdown due to Covid-19. So then, what to do about that? In this blog I’m going to give some ideas on how Blue Monday can be made a little bit cheerier in this difficult time.

Bereavement affects us in many ways and it’s very important to share how you’re feeling whilst grieving. Sometimes during this process, you might feel lost on who to turn to or you feel as if you can’t open up to some people you know. In this blog, we’ll have suggestions on who you can turn to when grieving.

Here at funeral-notices.co.uk we are very proud of the website we have built and all the unique features that we have to offer, but more importantly we are proud of the community that has grown within our pages. All across the country, friends and families are coming back year after year to pay tribute to the memory of a lost loved one, sharing photos, stories and loving thoughts. But sometimes when someone you love has passed, you want to feel like you’ve done more in their memory to show not only how much you cared, but also that they will leave behind a legacy. That’s why we introduced our own Donations Service that is free to add to any main Funeral Notice at the time of booking. A donation to a charity in someone’s memory is not just a nice thing to do as an alternative to flowers, but it really does help those grieving to know just how much people cared, as well as giving a meaning to an otherwise seem to be a very meaningless loss.

As everyone knows, a funeral is a formal and respectful event intended to honour the memory of the person who has passed away. Therefore, it goes without saying that ‘funeral etiquette’ must be obeyed. But what does that actually entail? In this blog, I am going to answer that very question: what is the proper etiquette for a funeral?

Some people want to let everyone know about someone who has passed away, as well as arrangements for their funeral. They want to make sure that as many people who knew the deceased as possible are able to attend the proceedings, and pay their respects one final time. Others, however, may want to make the funeral a more private, intimate affair. They may choose to keep news of the death and funeral to themselves and the dead’s closest family and friends until after it has taken place. And with the current climate caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, this has become much more common. In this blog, I’m going to take a further look into this, as well as answering the question:

As we come to the close of the year, there are going to be many a news article or sarcastic TV comedian that will be highlighting just how stupendously rubbish 2020 was, but was it all bad..? And if it really was all bad, then can we use that to make 2021 the year that we all learn and grow ?

A funeral is an opportunity to pay your respects, share memories and celebrate the life of a loved one who has recently passed away. However, it is also a challenging and emotionally difficult day for all involved. This will be especially true for younger people, which begs the question, should they be attending the funeral at all? In this blog I am going to attempt to answer that very question: how old do you have to be to attend a funeral?