Who is best placed to know that death upsets and disrupts all beings? Who ? Yet everyone faces it one day or another.
And the reactions are varied when fate strikes. This one, like the willow, remains inconsolable, that one remains stoic, many feel lost, some become bitter, still others cannot believe it.
All of these reactions are legitimate.
Professionals in funeral rituals (PRF) intervene at a very bad time in people’s lives. Their true role is much nobler than we think. They are there to welcome, to listen, to console, to serve, to guide, to help families get through this ordeal with respect and dignity.
The PRF are also there to question what, collectively, we want to do with our dead. Because, more and more, the rituals are botched, for lack of time or consideration for our dead or for what they were while alive.
More and more frequently, people sign pre-arrangement contracts in which they promise that they want nothing: no embalming, no exhibition, no funeral, nothing, without any consideration for their loved ones.
Fear of being a nuisance, fear of being a burden and/or social isolation are often factors that influence older people when choosing pre-arrangements. We have a duty, as PRF, to advise people well before they choose their rituals, because these will have a considerable impact on what happens next.
In a community that wants to preserve its mental health and take good care of it, we could start by taking the time to mourn our dead.