Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Frustration
A local undertaker, though not one of the ones I usually deal with, calls. 'I'm talking to the family of Moira Brown from Widelake House', says the friendly lady on the line. 'They would like you to take her funeral service as you take services there'. 'I'd be very pleased to,' I reply. 'We've booked the service at the crematorium at 11am on Thursday 12th,' she goes on. I explain that I'm off work on Thursdays though I could do another day. 'Oh, OK', she says, and hangs up. I know that undertakers are often confronted by families who understandably want to get all the funeral arrangements sorted in a single quick visit to the office, but would it really be very hard to ask when a particular minister was free before booking the crematorium? It's obvious that my services weren't really required on this occasion at all.
It is exasperating sometimes. I've spent some years trying to get local undertakers to give me a quick bell before booking the crematorium, especially if the family specifically ask for me - occasionally, and only occasionally, some of them now do so. Their anxiety over getting the "right" time slot over-rides their concern about who takes the ceremony, if indeed they have such a concern. I have to try to remember that they have their own diaries to juggle. I would guess it's more problematic in your case, when you have a parish to serve and a church to run .We (Funeralworld UK) don't do this stuff very well, it seems to me.
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