Rachael's story
One of our aims at A Natural Undertaking is to help families to have greater involvement on the run up to, and during the funeral – if that’s what they would like. All too often families will find that everything is “taken care of”, leaving them little room to express their loss or share it meaningfully […]
A Musical Undertaking
‘Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand’ Don’t be distracted by lists of popular “funeral songs”. The best use of music at funerals is personal. Pete Williams– songwriter, vocalist, hoofer, raconteur and founder member of Dexy’s Midnight Runners tells us why it’s important to choose carefully, and how he may be […]
The Death Show - from our artists in residence
Artists in Residence There are not many funeral directors that can claim to have an artistic arm to their business. At A Natural Undertaking however we like to approach life differently, and we’re very excited to announce that for this year we will have two brilliant creative minds, Lucy and Antonia, working with us as our ‘Artists […]
Nominated! But what is a Modern Funeral Director?
Good Funeral Awards 2016 We’re really proud to have been nominated at the Good Funeral Awards for the second year running, but with the nomination being for Modern Funeral Director of the year, and no specific criteria outlined it really got us thinking about what people might consider a ‘Modern Funeral Director’ to be. Having […]
Funeral food - it's a thing!
It might not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of a funeral, but funeral food has it roots in every culture. Whether it’s to commemorate the dead or console mourners, focusing on food around the time someone dies is as firmly embedded a tradition as any other you might think of. […]
Do you know your Humanists from your Civil Celebrants?
As Carrie and I have been arranging more and more funerals we’ve realised that there’s a real gap in knowledge about the different types of people who actually deliver the ceremonies. Often we find that people who aren’t particularly religious say they would like a humanist to lead the ceremony but when we talk more […]
YODO the Movie
If you happened to read our last blog post you’ll have seen that we took to the streets of Kings Heath at the end of May as part of Dying Matters Awareness week – YODO 2015. Here’s a short video kindly shot and edited by Sarah Chaundler featuring some of the lovely people who took part who […]
A 'sort of dress' - making shrouds in the 1950s
Chatting to my neighbour, Barbara, recently I discovered that when she was younger she had worked for a company making shrouds for funeral directors. Her stories really made me smile; they highlighted the human face behind a business which would rarely have been discussed. We agreed that they should be shared, so, illustrated by photographs kindly supplied […]
