The Country Celebrant and The Country Carer

These are unprecedented times, how can we help one another? Life throws us curved balls all the time.  How we deal with those is what makes us who we are. Just imagine that someone you love dearly is dying; under normal circumstances there would be a steady stream of visitors calling to pay their last respects, kindly neighbours with a tin of something, cards, phone calls and flowers.   Then imagine what it would be like to deal with that alone, there are still the phone calls but the human contact is at a distance, remote and frustrating.  Frustrating from both sides ... underlying guilt, real sadness and unbelievably lonely. I cannot visit you any more than your wider family and community can, but I can talk to you via Zoom or Messenger, I am not the same as your family but you don't have to be brave and stoical with me. I trained as an end of life Doula to support both the dying and their immediate family.  If you need support and I can h...

I was asked to write a piece outlining my role as a writer of ceremonies. I take inspiration from the countryside in which I work The first point I would like to make is that it requires training.  I learned during an intensive one to one week with my mentor at the U K Society of Celebrants.  There are other organisations that will train you too.  You never stop learning, each job brings it's own challenges and we are offered the chance to improve our skills regularly. The site of my Father's grave I trained in all aspects of celebrancy; this means that I can write and conduct a funeral, a memorial, a naming ceremony, a wedding, a renewal of vows and I have demonstrated my competence in all of the above. In addition to my training as a Celebrant I went on to train as an End of Life Doula.  The UK Society of Celebrants offers this training as well.  I find that it is a very useful adjunct to my celebrancy work in that it extends the service I am...