Writing your story to be read when the time comes
Living Eulogy
Our Specialist Living Eulogy Services (also known as "Living Funerals") are designed with unparalleled support and flexibility. Whether you want to plan your whole funeral in advance, or have a pre-paid funeral plan, here at Amanda-Louise Funeral Directors we offer more. Working with you capturing your life story that you wish to be retold when the time comes during your funeral ceremony or during a celebration of your life. Popular for people who want to be prepared, living with a terminal diagnosis or at end of life.
Living Eulogy - Your Story Retold
Advance funeral planning is becoming more popular today, making arrangements for the type of funeral you want removing the need for those left behind to make those important decisions.
We at Amanda-Louise Funeral Services are a compassionate and experienced funeral directors, based in Minehead supporting families across Somerset and Devon, offering genuine support, choice and value. As modern funeral services, we understand everyone has different needs. So our holistic and fresh approach to funeral planning sets us apart from other funeral director services.
Not only do we support families to plan traditional, alternative and green funerals whilst looking after their loved one once they have died, we at Amanda-Louise's help individuals while they are alive, not only to plan for the type of funeral they want when the time comes, and by offering pre-paid funeral plans paying for the funeral in advance. But we go further.....
We can support individuals to record their life story (this is known as a "living eulogy" or "living funeral") to be read when the time comes, perhaps during their funeral ceremony or during a celebration of life (very popular with a direct cremation). Families tell us that this service was empowering and uplifting experience. Read below to find out more....
Your Memory Book Of Life
Capturing your life story so that it can be retold at your funeral is a very meaningful thing to do. It enables you to think about your life, what bits you want said within your eulogy spoken at your funeral service, and it can be updated as you journey through your life.
But its not an obituary. Its a mixture of a biography of your life history, elements of your autobiography and your memoirs as a collection of memories that are important to you. So it doesnt need to capture every detail from the moment you were born, but it will contain the precious moments you want to share.
Lets Together Create Your Living Eulogy
"Hello, Im Amanda-Louise a compassionate Funeral Director and also a professional qualified Celebrant. It would be honour to support you. Heard the phrase 'heard it from the horses mouth'? Well thats what I offer - I meet with you to listen to your memories, as a trained creative writer I then write this along you, with sense checking it, and provide you with a professional script as your Living Eulogy document for your safe keeping.
I will keep a copy too, so when the time comes, I can either have it to hand when you wish me to conduct your funeral service and ceremony, or can pass it onto whoever you choose to read it on your behalf.
Your Life Story Unfolds
You may wish to have a contract with terms scheduling in with me to review your Living Eulogy every few years or so, to either slightly edit your Living Eulogy or completely update it.
Or, you may wish to opt for me to write your whole funeral ceremony while you are alive, choosing the format, any readings, poems, or prayers, the music you adore, even down to whether you want the curtains to be closed or left open (if its a cremation) and so on."
Expected Costs
This service is for the person planning their own funeral - whether it is imminent or just a future plan (much like writing a Will is prepared in advance). Typical fee is from £200-£250
Are you Ready For Us To Write Your Story?
Why stop at planning in advance whether you want to be buried or cremated, when you can now advance plan your funeral ceremony too? We help you to do this.
Contact Us Today To Write the First Page of Your Story....
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More services we offer
What to expect from us
The enduring strength of women
We care for you and your family
As your Lady Funeral Directors, Amanda-Louise can meet you in the comfort of your own home, or in our peaceful office, or via video call if you'd prefer. We will never tell you how 'things should be done', or rush you, but support you to understand and consider your choices, so that you can decide what is right for you and your family and friends.
We will listen to you, and can help you plan a funeral ceremony. We'll respect your personal beliefs, values and culture and ensure your requirements, and those of the person that has died, are reflected in the funeral. You may prefer a religious funeral, a more secular service or might want to include a number of different religious and spiritual perspectives within the same service.
We can help you to reflect on the life of the person who has died and enable you to create some positive memories to support you at a time when people can often feel sad and alone. We can support you to have a farewell that you desire - so we will support you to understand the wide range of options such as visual, musical, floral, donations, readings/poems for example, as well as organising venue and/or hospitality for your after funeral wake or reception, if you wish.
Importantly, we will be flexible to your needs and wishes and give you our time to help put your ideas into action. You can take as much control as you like. We are able to support families from across Somerset or Devon, are not regionally restricted, we can help you create an event at a time and place that is best for you.
Amanda-Louise Funeral Director, can also personally deliver a heartfelt celebrant led service on your behalf should you wish, or we can recommend other talented professional ceremony leaders including religious ministers, celebrants and humanists.
We work hard to support the wellbeing of every family we support (adults and children).We can also provide a wealth of practical bereavement information for adults and children, and we'll ensure the funeral is meaningful for you, which helps in coming to terms with loss too.
We care for the person who has died
In our care you have trusted us to look after your loved one and we take enormous pride in treating people with respect and dignity. From the very moment the person who has died comes into our care, to the moment they leave, we will treat them with compassion, kindness and consideration. We see this as part of the cycle of life
We reach out and support people from 15 to 50+ miles away from us, as we safely transfer the deceased into our facilities. We'll care for the person entrusted into our funeral home with compassion and dignity, and treat everyone as guests in our home. Or we can assist if you prefer the deceased to remain at home or liaise with a repatriation company for deaths abroad.
We provide a comprehensive range of coffins in different materials, including coffin accessories to suit all tastes. This is a very personal choice, so we happily talk about them or can show you the differences.
We can provide the ability for family to spend time with their loved one, and to change clothing if this is important to you. Plus you can be involved in as little or as much of their care as you desire. We will gently prepare them for their funeral following your wishes including hairstyles or makeup, and whilst we do not routinely embalm we can provide this if you desire. We’ll take great care of any person effects, and give them to you ,or they will remain with the person Plus we can arrange for your items to be placed in the coffin if you wish.
We can even support you to keep your loved one at home right up until their funeral if you wish.
On the day of the funeral
We understand that attention to detail is really important, from considering the way people enter the service to carefully calculating the journey time.
We can provide our professional pallbearers to convey the coffin. We can help you bear the coffin if that's important to you. We can arrange special routes to the funeral if you wish, or alternative hearses and limousines.
We can arrange to collect family from railway station or airport if helpful.
Some families prefer not to hold the funeral ceremony at a crematorium chapel or in church, so we can support you to have a service in a chosen hotel, hall or alternative venue that is meaningful to you.
Amanda-Louise will be by your side giving you that reassuring presence ensuring everything is going to plan smoothly, and we leave when you are ready for us to go. We can also provide attendance cards so you know who has attended the funeral ceremony service.
After the funeral
We remain connected should you need us. If we collected donations, we will provide you with audit trail so you know they have been forwarded to the relevant people, organisation or charity. We'll collect ashes if that's helpful & deliver them to you. We can arrange for you to scatter them or preserve them if you wish.
We will have spoken to you about the arrangements of the funeral flowers and carried out those wishes. And if required, we can organise graves and headstones to be put in place at a suitable time after a burial or ashes placed.
And we welcome you to stay in touch. Often our clients pop in to talk about how life is treating them, or to attend one of our coffee afternoons as life can be isolating at times following the loss of a loved one. Our kettle is always on, likely biscuits too. Rest assured, we will never stop caring - here for you whenever you need us, wherever you are.
Do you need more help?
"We all felt totally safe opening our hearts to Amanda-Louise and were so impressed in the skills and empathy she has to understand how we all felt."
Living Funeral Services
Our frequently asked questions to guide you
Can a Member of our Family read a Eulogy?
Yes of course. You don’t need to have a professional ceremony leader, and even if you do have one, sometimes a family or friend stands up to read their written eulogy. We have had military personnel get up too to share words in honour.
"Dedicated to giving you the funeral you deserve & want"
"With my vision on providing wrap-around-care from start to finish. Our team are here to help you with every aspect of planning and organising your funeral needs from the preparation of the body to events and memorial services, I will be with you every step of the way"