Chris | September 2023
“You did so well to pull the ceremony together, people were saying it was just such a beautiful way to say goodbye to someone”
Doing this job has opened my eyes to how funerals can be - and the celebration of life for Chris was the least ‘funeral-y’ celebration I’ve done yet.
Set in twinkling, fairy-lit woodland? Tick.
A yurt displaying Storyworth books about his life? Tick.
Chairs set out in the round? Tick.
Full bar and rainbow grazing board? Tick.
There were even - and I thought this was genius - stickers so guests could display how they knew Chris - whether through cycling, kayaking or medicine…along with many other ways.
A well-known and well-respected surgeon, with hundreds of published articles to his name, Chris’ death needed to be marked - properly - by his loved ones. It was a small gathering at the absolutely stunning Falkland Estate in Fife, with a limit of seventy, but the family would have loved to invite many, many more of his friends and relatives.
The contributions he leaves behind to his medical field needed to be acknowledged, not to mention the impact his gloriously full, can-do-attitude life has had on his nearest and dearest.
So credit to his devoted family - his wife Jo and his daughters, Alex and Cat - because they did Chris proud. It was a celebration of life that truly felt that: a celebration of someone’s too-short but oh-so-full life. A life well-lived. A life where people wouldn’t, couldn’t, let you go without a party.
“The ceremony was considered, clever and funny - which is what dad would’ve wanted! ”