Jodie McCombie Civil Funeral Celebrant

Brown Owl earrings today for the funeral of a wonderful woman who was devoted to Guiding and making a difference in the world. We finished with this smashing poem in her honour:

Brown Owl - Anon

A leader, a guide, a guiding star,
Moulding minds both near and far.
With patience, love, and wisdom profound,
A Girl Guide leader, truly renowned.

In the wilderness of life, she leads the way,
Teaching us to be strong, come what may.
With her compass of kindness and compass of care,
A Girl Guide leader, always there.

She ignites the fire within our souls,
Guiding us towards our goals.
With her passion and unwavering belief,
A Girl Guide leader, our eternal chief.

Through badges earned and memories made,
A Girl Guide leader, our foundation laid.
With her guidance and unwavering grace,
We become strong, confident, and embrace.

She leads with love, she leads with care,
Teaching us to always be aware.
With her torch of wisdom, shining bright,
A Girl Guide leader, our guiding light.

A Girl Guide leader, a hero unseen,
Empowering young girls to dream and achieve.
With her dedication and unwavering support,
She helps us conquer any challenge or fort.

In her heart, the Girl Guide promise resides,
A good Brown Owl who selflessly guides.
With her troop, she embarks on a journey,
A Girl Guide leader, a beacon of unity.

She plants the seeds of courage and might,
Guiding us through darkness into the light.
With her compass of kindness, she leads the way,
A Girl Guide leader, day after day.

She teaches us to be brave and bold,
With her incredible heart of gold.
A Girl Guide leader, always there,
Showing us how to love and care.

In her hands, she held the future’s key,
Guiding us towards our destiny.
A Girl Guide leader, with love so true,
Thank you for everything you do.

Talking about death and dying does not invite it closer to you. Death is not a secret.

Carrot earrings today for the funeral of a wonderful woman of 82, who won Allotment Gardener of the Year for her town just last year. 🥕 🥕 🥕

These are very interesting days where you can ask the very helpful staff at the Crematorium any questions at all that you have about funerals and even the cremation process.

One of my favourite poems has been chosen by a family to pay tribute to their loved one.

What Will Matter by Michael Josephson

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten
will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations
and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from
or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin colour will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought
but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success
but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned
but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity,
compassion, courage, or sacrifice
that enriched, empowered or encouraged others
to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence
but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not your memories
but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered,
by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

Having had time to digest yesterday's terrible news we look to the positives Rob has left us with in his short 41 years.

He was a warrior on and off the rugby field. Small in statue but massive in heart.

Rob and Kev have raised awareness of this horrible incurable disease MND and how it effects the lives of so many people.

Rob and Kev's friendship both on and off the field has been nothing short of inspirational.

Rest In Peace Rob Burrows a true legend

No One You Love Is Ever Dead: Hemingway on the Most Devastating of Losses and the Meaning of Life “We must live it, now, a day at a time and be very careful not to hurt each other.”

A stunning thank you bouquet from the friends of a very special young man, Chris. He had the opportunity to plan how he wanted his send-off to be, and his fantastic friends made sure it happened for him. It was an honour to play my part.

The dandelion is the only flower that represents the three celestial bodies of the sun, moon, and stars: The yellow flower resembles the sun, the puff ball resembles the moons, and the dispersing seeds resemble the stars.

The dandelion flower opens to greet the morning and closes in the evening to go to sleep.

Every part of the dandelion is useful: root, leaves, flower. It can be used for food, medicine, and dye for colouring.

Up until the 1800s, people would pull grass out of their lawns to make room for dandelions and other useful “weeds” like chickweed, malva and chamomile.

The name dandelion is taken from the French word “dent de lion” meaning lion’s tooth, referring to the coarsely-toothed leaves. 🦁

Dandelions have one of the longest flowering seasons of any plant.

Dandelion seeds are often transported away by a gust of wind and they travel like tiny parachutes. Seeds are often carried as many as five miles from their origin!

Birds, insects, and butterflies consume nectar or seeds of dandelion.
Honey from bees pollinating dandelions is quite delicious. 🐦 🐛 🐜 🦋 🐝.

Dandelion flowers do not need to be pollinated to form seeds.
Root of dandelion can be used as a substitute for coffee.

Dandelion is used in folk medicine to treat infections and liver disorders. Tea made of dandelion act as a diuretic.

If you know dandelions, they’ll grow shorter stalks to spite you.

Dandelions are, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist. They are masters of survival worldwide.

~ Author unknown
Art by Laron G. S. via Midjourney (PM Laron for digital prints)
Laron G. Smith

Our newest funeral director Tracey has recently conducted the funeral of a local gentleman and his wife has shown her appreciation by writing Tracey this lovely poem:

🌻Sunshine for Ray🌻
Tracey thank you so very much,
You handle your position with such a gentle touch.
You were patient and kind as we found our way,
to honour and respect our dear Ray.
It meant so much to us all
That you were available if we needed to call.
You helped to smooth an emotional day,
And the funeral made us so very proud of our beloved Ray.
MMK 19/04/24 🙏🌻🌈

Pikachu earrings for the funeral yesterday of Leigh, a wonderful young woman, a daughter any mam would be proud of, the best big sister, perfect partner and fantastic friend and a brilliant mammy.

Leigh’s mam has very generously sent me these words of thanks and asked me to post them here:

“I wanted to say a huge thankyou for performing Leigh's service yesterday for us. It was perfect, I have had so many people message me to say that it was so personal and reflected Leigh so well.

Everyone complimented the music choices and slide show and every single person there cried at that poem, it was very appropriate and read so well, you showed real feeling and I really appreciate that.

I feel proud that I was able to get so involved in all of the planning for yesterday, and I feel that we got it just right for her. Thankyou so much for helping me to do that.

I am so grateful for everything you have done to support us. “

Our team at Hartlepool, Wingate, Darlington and Newton Aycliffe are busy collecting Easter Eggs for local charities of our areas. If anyone wishes to contribute an Easter egg. Please pop into any of our branches. Any contributions will be gratefully received.

Today is World Poetry Day and we have chosen to share a poem written by a local poet called Joanne Boyle.

"Can you fly to heaven?"
the little girl asked the bird.
The bird whistled a little tune.
A one, that she'd once heard.

She didn't think too much
as she was lost inside her grief.
She hoped the birds could help,
to find her loved ones thief.

"I think an angel Stole My Mum,
and hid her in the sky,
Can you take me to her.
Can you teach me how to fly?"

The birds then starting singing,
and the butterflies came to dance.
They hoped that she'd remember.
They hoped there was a chance.

She looked at all three birds,
from one and then to another.
She swore she saw her grandpa,
and her grandma with her mother.

She blinked her eyes through tears,
but they never went away.
Then she was lost in a memory,
where they ran off to play.

Her favourite song was playing,
and she jumped on Grandma's knee,
whilst grandpa was hiding
and her mum was making tea.

She heard the laughter echo.
and as she stood there with the birds,
she realised heaven came to earth,
everytime that she felt scared.

To read more beautiful poems by Joanne you can visit her page Heartfelt or if you would like to buy any of her books you can visit her website https://heartfeltpoetry.co.uk/

(Art work by Steffi Krenzek)

Yesterday I met with some of the team from Zarach charity, to the left Shelley Malko, myself Andrea Todd (Wear Valley Business Leader) and Jess Sandy, as we were able to donate £10,000 from the metal recycle scheme through crematoria. This amazing charity are providing children with their basic needs, a good nights sleep being only part of it. Child poverty is on the rise in this country and statistics are showing that thousands of children do not have the basics like a bed to sleep in therefore leading to tired children who are not able to fully engage at school which impacts on their education. With the donation we were able to provided 67 'bed packs' this includes a bed, duvet and pillow, bedding, hygiene pack and bedtime story book and teddy. They have 7 locations to date and are hoping to open in the Tees Valley in the very near future to be able to help children in our area, a very worthwhile cause and it was wonderful to be able to help❤️

https://www.dignityfunerals.co.uk/advice/how-to-cope-with-grief-on-mothers-day/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=how-to-cope-with-grief-on-mothers-day&fbclid=IwAR1YrgqUHig_q9W0Uv0HjDBwp58M4sm99kByGg99gz9aEakwzzPos6j_9-g

Head Grounds Person At Dignity, we are proud to work in a unique industry. We succeed by helping people through difficult times with compassion, respect, openness and care. 

At the request of Sheila’s family, please see the announcement below

Very thoughtful installation at beautiful Wear Valley Crematorium to try and help bring comfort to those grieving 🥰

Our Letters to Heaven post box is now situated within our grounds at Wear Valley. A regular visitor to our grounds had seen various posts about the Letters to Heaven post boxes and asked if it was something we would be doing, her grandaughter was struggling coming to terms with the loss of her great grandmother and thought this would help her cope by writing down her feelings in a letter, we thought it was a wonderful idea to be able to help with her grieving process.

Yorkshire pudding earrings today for a man who absolutely loved the ones his daughter made 🥰 😋

Pop along and join us for cuppa and a chat, everyone welcome...

If you never love, you’ll never grieve. But what sort of life would that be?

Happy New Year - to those looking forward to a better year and to those looking back to happier times.

Wishing you all Peace this Christmas and do not forget to save a seat at your table for loved ones no longer here🌟❤️

The pain of grief is often more keenly felt at this time of year and sometimes, just being in the company of others does help. This will be a lovely way to come together and remember loved ones.