The Wake Company in the Downsmail

Thank you to the Downsmail for the lovely piece about The Wake Company in February's edition. You can read the article here "Helping you celebrate life" 

Alexandra Brown, founder of The Wake Company, will guide you through the time between the death of your loved one and the funeral. She will help you plan a fitting celebration of their life at the Wake and take care of all the details that you may not have the energy to deal with at this time.

Alexandra can be contacted by email alexandra@thewakecompany.com or by phone 07761 150916. Further details are also on the website www.thewakecompany.com

After the funeral

"Funerals are no longer the black-clad sombre affairs of the past" writes Katie Gibbons in an article in The Times. According to the National Association of Funeral Directors, there are more and more bizarre requests at funerals - Morris dancing, wild west themes, unusual burial places to name a few. People are starting to feel more comfortable planning their own funerals and realising their own mortality.

The death of someone close to you, whether expected or out of the blue, leaves you at an emotional and physical loss, yet with a whole pile of things to be organised in a relatively short space of time. In association with the NAFD, the awareness group Dying Matters have put together a form "My Funeral Wishes" encouraging people to pre-plan and pre-organise their funerals. 

The Wake Company has been established by Alexandra Brown, in Kent, to assist in the taking of this organisation one step further and planning the Wake in advance too. The Wake Company can give advice regarding the Wake - the celebration of life after the funeral. The Wake Company can also organise the Wake following on from an unexpected death. Have a look at the website www.thewakecompany.com to look at the type of help we can offer. 

A celebration of life

I was privileged to be asked to sing at a funeral recently for a lady who was 96 years old when she passed away. What a wonderful long life. But it was only when I looked at the order of service and saw she was born on Christmas Day 1917 that I really appreciated what an incredible period of history she had lived through and what an amazing celebration her funeral and wake were going to be.

Of course it was a sad occasion but at the same time it was a most uplifting and joyous one too. Four generations of family were present as well as many many friends and acquaintances. Following on from the funeral service a warm and thoughtfully planned wake took place. Stories abounded of this lovely lady and it was a happy and comforting time for those present to share.

No matter what age someone is when they die there is a feeling of terrible loss and sadness for those left behind. With a little time and thought there can be a real celebration of the life of this person. If you would like some help in this celebration planning, have a look at www.thewakecompany.com and if you feel we might be able to help you along the way, please get in touch.

Planning a Wake

Our lives are so busy planning stuff. Loads of "stuff" - small things like "what am I going to wear to work tomorrow"; "what shall we have for lunch on Sunday"; bigger things like "who shall we invite for Christmas"; "how will we celebrate the children's birthdays this year"; and then huge stuff "where will we get married / have the reception / go on honeymoon".

And you plan the "big" and "huge" things over many weeks or even months and years and you're excited and happy and you're going to see lots of family and friends.

So where does a celebration of life or to give it it's formal name - a Wake - come on the scale of stuff to be organised? I would suggest somewhere between "big" and "huge". And this is where the hitch comes, you haven't got many weeks or months to organise it and you are certainly not feeling excited or happy.

But it's still got to be done and The Wake Company can help you. We can do the planning for you, we can contact old family friends and work colleagues, we can place death notices, we can find somewhere suitable for the Wake or find caterers should you wish to have it at home, we can source musicians and florists, we can design and have printed the orders of service. You can tell us what you would like to happen and we will do whatever we can to fulfil your wishes.

There is a lot to organise when you have been bereaved. The funeral directors will handle the funeral for you, the Wake Company will manage the Wake for you and leave you with smaller, more handleable, "stuff". www.thewakecompany.com  

In the beginning...

...there was nobody around to help bereaved people sort out the Wake following the funeral of a loved one. In the beginning, there were funeral directors who could point you in the direction of caterers and pubs and the local florist, but their role was to manage the funeral not the Wake.

And so, following on from managing and organising a host of charitable events, along with being booked to sing at various funerals, realising there was nobody offering to organise the Wake (the celebration of life that follows on from the funeral service) The Wake Company was born.

The Wake Company is based just outside Maidstone in Kent. Liaising with the funeral director, the crematorium, the celebrant, the church or other place of worship and of course with the bereaved, The Wake Company seeks to relieve the burden of organisation at this sad and stressful time.

We can place death notices; contact friends, neighbours and old work colleagues to tell them of funeral and Wake arrangements and importantly - manage the numbers of people planning to attend; we can source musicians, florists, caterers; we can arrange for a book of condolence to be available for signing; we can arrange for charitable donations to be collected and forwarded.

We believe the Wake should be a real celebration of life. Let us help you. www.thewakecompany.com