Illawarra Mercury

The perfect last hurrah

PLANNING AHEAD: Planning your own funeral means you can ensure it truly reflects you and the life you lived. It also relieves your loved ones of the burden of planning a funeral. Photo: Shutterstock.
PLANNING AHEAD: Planning your own funeral means you can ensure it truly reflects you and the life you lived. It also relieves your loved ones of the burden of planning a funeral. Photo: Shutterstock.

This is branded content for Hansen and Cole Funerals

Everyone's perfect last hurrah is different. It's the final chance to throw a gathering, create an atmosphere for friends and family, and the chance to be remembered in the way you want to.

Funeral director Simon Rice shared with me what his perfect send off would be, and with his lived experience planning funerals, his sounds well informed and deeply thought out. Mine, not so much.

Simon opened with logistical considerations, of course. He's been planning funerals for 18 years, so knows the purpose of every element in the process.

"Firstly I would think about whether my loved ones needed to see me after I passed away. I want them to have that opportunity because it's a really cathartic and healing time for families.

"It gives them the opportunity to say their final words to the deceased, tell them they're crabby at them for dying, and that they love them," said Simon.

Simon went on to tell me about the finer details. He wants good, live music with deep meaning. He wants to play songs that make his loved ones think of him. He also wants beautiful, bright and cheerful flowers with lots of colour.

"I want lots of memories to be shared. I want it to be colourful and warm and I want people to talk about me, the good and the bad. We're not all perfect and as the saying goes 'just because someone has died doesn't mean that they're automatically a saint'," said Simon.

And the atmosphere? Simon wants lots of tears.

"I want it to be a celebration of hopefully a life that's been long and well lived.

"But I would expect there would be grief there as well because that's really important. It's an important psychological process to feel grief and work through the process. I want there to be lots of hugging, and everyone to be supportive of each other.

"I also hope there would be tears, I'd be a bit upset if there wasn't. I want it to be an honest hurrah with laughs and tears and colour," said Simon.

And the best part is Simon's funeral is pet friendly.

"I'd like to be remembered as an animal lover. If anyone wants to bring their pets to my funeral, do it. Bring your dogs and rabbits, all creatures great and small. Pets are a great support mechanism."

Simon's well thought out funeral is a far cry from mine. My list of final demands includes free flowing margaritas, obnoxiously loud music and rolling slideshows of photos showing my best angle.

It's confronting to think of your own mortality, but doing so means you take the opportunity to say goodbye your own way.

This is branded content for Hansen and Cole Funerals