We raised a glass (and cups of tea) to Absent Friends last Sunday.  As part of the “To absent Friends Festival”, Celebrate People held two events “because dead ordinary people live on in our stories and our memories”.  Our celebrants conduct hundreds of ceremonies every year, and it is our passion and privilege to celebrate the lives of those we love who are no longer with us.

What made our tea party a bit different was that we remembered not only the people we love, but also our pets.

  Parents brought their kids, who told us about Brian the Labrador who loved carrots, Rupert the spaniel who delivered wedding rings, and many others.  A candle was lit for each name called out, and every life was remembered with love.

That evening we had an online session called “Funerals – Thinking out of the Box” led by Libby McArthur, who is an actor as well as a celebrant, and she and our guests came up with so many great ways to remember and celebrate our lives.  

One person from the Highlands decided she wants to have a “living funeral” where all her friends would gather to tell wonderful, even outrageous, stories of her exploits and she would be there to hear them all!  Her celebration would be followed by a private cremation when the time came.

Stories were told, laughter and tears were shared. But most of all, we remembered those we have loved and lost.  They will live on with all of us in our hearts.