INDIA MAY Funeral Celebrant in Mitcham, Victoria | Funeral service & cemetery

INDIA MAY Funeral Celebrant

Locality: Mitcham, Victoria

Phone: +61 401 206 404

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25.01.2022 Grief doesn't always hide in our hearts, yet it is there that we experience physical pain. I say pain, because those who have lost a loved one have expressed an unrelenting physical pain across their chest. It is there that we feel crushed, beaten and unable to rise. Yet Grief lives elsewhere too. It's found in our mind and in turn our soul. For we are mind, body and soul. Those who journey with Grief understand that Grief alters every part of who they are. One cannot walk with Grief without being changed.

25.01.2022 I never expect a Thank You when families are grieving. Today my heart was so touched to receive these gorgeous flowers right before I was to lead a service for a very special loved one. I get to meet the most amazing families in my job. I count it as such an honour to step into their sacred spaces of love.

25.01.2022 There is room for joy, for affection, laughter and love during Grief. A moment of embrace and thanks on the Inverloch beach, after leading my Pop's Farewell Service. Three Generations

25.01.2022 This year, more than ever, I’ve sat and witnessed Spring enfold in my front garden. Bare trees are now covered in blossoms and daffodils are sprouting up everywhere. It’s evidence that Winter has passed and Spring has begun! Seasons are measured and move swiftly from one to the next. Grief isn’t like this at all. There is no such thing as a ‘season of grief’. (Forgive me if I have ever used this phrase!) For this I believe, gives false hope to those who mourn, that Grief will one day disappear and their next season will begin. From what I’ve learnt, as I sit with families, is that Grief can only be described as a journey. A journey which ebbs and flows at their own pace. Sending love to those who journey closely on its path.

24.01.2022 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. Despite all that Grief brings to the heart, mind and soul- there is something greater, more powerful than Grief. Love trumps Grief every time. It is Love which sustains us, holds us and comforts us when we grieve. Through the darkness, Love shines brighter.

24.01.2022 Today we said a sad but fond farewell to a Master Painter, my Pop. Surrounded by family and his closest friends we scattered his ashes in one of his favourite places to paint. Master Painter He put the last stroke on the canvas, and stood before his art,... A masterpiece no doubt, full of love too hard to part. He had painted many before, but nothing that compared, Nothing that captured so many memories shared. While the paint was still drying, he reflected on his art, Had he painted well and given his whole heart? Perhaps the evidence was in the detail, the thoughtfulness of each stroke, Or was it in the colours which required you to soak? To soak in every aspect, of life lived to the full, To be capable and willing to be loved and meaningful. He was the master painter, and today puts down his brush, To pass it on to you and me as long as we dont rush. For all of us, we must remember to live our best life well, The Master Painter, my Pop, his name was Ivan Fell.

22.01.2022 Such a beautiful honour to be part of an amazing team of people putting together a very meaningful Mother's Day Remembrance Service. Thank you to everyone who came along to honour and remember a Mum, Grandmother, Great-grandmother, Step-mum, Wife, Sister or Aunty. May you feel their love always and especially on Mother's Day.

22.01.2022 Life keeps on living after you lose someone you love. You cannot, as much as you try, press pause on living. Life forces you to continue on. The pace might be slower and more difficult but you cannot freeze from living. After the death of my Grandma, it was my kids who reminded me of this. Their needs were still the same pre and post death of my Grandma. They still needed and deserved my love and attention. At times I felt disrespectful to her. That somehow me grocery shoppin...g a week after she had passed made me feel like I wasnt honouring her memory. But the reality was, we needed food in the house. And so life went on. Continuing to function (in whatever shape that takes) every day after a loved one passes doesnt in any way diminish your love for them and their love for you. In time I realised that I owed it to my Grandma to really LIVE. To soak up every moment in detail and to celebrate the beautiful ordinary every day life, including this extraordinary rainbow which appeared on my way home from grocery shopping that day. See more

21.01.2022 I am convinced that self care is just as important as caring for others. There is this incredible responsibility when we journey with those who grieve, to love them, hold them and care for them. We care best when we ourselves have been cared for. This comes in many ways whether it be allowing someone to do something special for us or within ourselves when we discover what our best form of self care is. During our journey with Grief, it is important to love ourselves so that w...e can project that love onto others. As a Funeral Celebrant I am surrounded by Grief on a daily basis. And while I count it as an enormous privilege and honour to step into a family's sacred place of both grief and love, I too need space for self care. Here is a beautiful picture of our last morning in Bali. Special family time and much needed rest. I arrived home yesterday to freezing Melbourne with a full heart and ready to care for another family. Sending love to you all. X

21.01.2022 Love this gorgeous sunset Off to lead a Mothers Day Remembrance Service tonight. Such an incredible honour and privilege. Feeling so grateful for the journey Im on and for the ability to care for others. Templeton Family Funerals Bunurong Memorial Park

21.01.2022 For a long time, until only recently, I thought there was something wrong with me when my Pop died, and I did not cry. I cried deeply, sobbed in fact, when my grandma passed. I felt a deep sense of release when the tears fell down my cheeks. All my emotions of Grief began to spill out over my face. Ironically, I found comfort in my ability to cry. And so, I found myself in a very unusual place when my Pop died, and no tears were present. At first, I thought it was because I ...was given the task, by my family, to lead his service, and that I had to be focused and hold it all together. After the service i expectantly waited for the tears. Yet they failed to come. I loved my Pop, valued my time spent in his presence as I grew and even as an adult enjoyed taking my own children to visit their Great Pop. After months of reflection, I have learnt this; Firstly, tears although incredibly relieving, are not a measure of love, instead Grief is. Grief is only experienced when Love is present. I discovered it is losing someone you Love which causes you to experience Grief. Secondly, Grief is displayed differently on anyone who journeys along its path. Grief is muddled with a range of emotions and reactions. And thirdly, Grief is messy. I desperately wanted to cry, but what I did find instead was uneasiness. Uneasy, as I believed there was something wrong with me for not crying. I have since realised that not all broken hearts cry and that instead these emotions manifest in other ways. My Pop was an artist, and it is since his passing that I have discovered a love of art like never before. Perhaps those tears are saved for a day where I stand before a beautiful painting and finally cry. Weeping Woman, 1937 Pablo Picasso

20.01.2022 Honouring a beautiful lady today at the Gables in Malvern. Such a stunning location!

20.01.2022 Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it. Today I was so honoured to receive this beautiful bunch of roses (and card) right before I was to lead their loved one’s service. Such a special family to think of me during such immense grief. Sending love to a vivacious and kind lady. X

19.01.2022 I long for the day when we can hug again. For the many families I journey with in Grief, I am sorry that I cannot hug you.... yet. What is in a hug? Hugs do not pretend to heal Grief. However, what hugs can do, if only for a brief second, is share the Grief. Between a hug, the burden is shared. I am missing the hugs terribly. Particulary when often a hug says more to a grieving family than, "I'm sorry for your loss". Hugs have the power to hold, to care and to share, when words fail. So to the families who have allowed me into their Grief journey and who have given me the honour of leading their loved one's service, I am truly sorry for the absent hugs. Soon, we will be able to hug and hold once more.

19.01.2022 I did a service not long ago for a lady who had lost her soulmate. They had been married for 62 years, and while it was a lifetime, to her, it went in the blink of an eye. Love unfolds quickly when you are building a life together and so saying goodbye is so much harder when you are forced to part. I always try so hard to help families pick readings/poems/songs which are right for 'their' person. Although very heartbreaking, this poem truly captures the state of her heartbrea...k in her journey of Grief and it is the one which was read at her husband's service. "He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week, and my Sunday rest, My moon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep away the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good." -WH Auden.

19.01.2022 A gentleman stopped me today, wiped the tears from his eyes, and thanked me. I had just led a service for a very special lady who was loved very deeply. He then went on to say how meaningful the service was and that despite the unbearable grief which he was experiencing, this service assisted him in his journey of healing. Services aid us on our grief journey. They create space for tears, reflections and an opportunity to be with those who mourn. There is something quite powerful about being united in grief- it is that knowledge that YOU are not alone and there are others who are journeying with you. In some very small way, we are comforted and supported in love.

17.01.2022 When I meet a family who has lost a loved one they are at their most vulnerable. Death destabilisers all our foundations and shakes us to our very core. I count it as an honour to step into these sacred places where love is abundantly displayed in the faces of those who grieve. I'm currently working on a service for such a person. They were loved beyond measure and through the waves of grief this brings comfort.

17.01.2022 Words fail to completely articulate how immensely grateful I am to be on this journey of helping those to honour life. It is such an enormous privilege to step into their sacred spaces of GRIEF to hear stories of love. Todays service with a spectacular view

16.01.2022 You meet the kindest and caring people in my job. These families are experiencing unimaginable grief yet they still display so much LOVE on their faces. I'm learning more and more that grief does not wipe away LOVE. Through all the pain LOVE still triumphs.

15.01.2022 Lest We Forget. Tomorrow I will rise just before dawn, like many Australians, to pay my respects to all those who faithfully served for our freedom. Although we walk in freedom there are others who walk with Grief, for they have lost loved ones who fought for our freedom. Lest We Forget.

14.01.2022 Today I felt truly humbled when I received this beautiful card. It is from a family who are still deeply grieving yet amongst their tears, still took the time to thank me for the service I lead for their loved one. My job gives me the enormous privilege of journeying with others when they are at their most vulnerable. I never take this for granted. I care deeply and always put everything I have into each service I do. What Ive come to realise is that each family have impacted my heart in more ways than I could have ever imagined. Xx.

14.01.2022 We owe it to them to live our best lives now, not tomorrow but today. We owe it to them to seize every opportunity and experience every moment of beauty to its full extent. We owe it to them to give generously, love freely and forgive quickly.... We owe it to them to breathe, care, dance and sing in all circumstances. But mostly we owe it to them to continue loving others the way they once loved us.

14.01.2022 Blessing for the Brokenhearted Let us agree for now that we will not say... the breaking makes us stronger or that it is better to have this pain than to have done without this love. Let us promise we will not tell ourselves time will heal the wound, when every day our waking opens it anew. Perhaps for now it can be enough to simply marvel at the mystery of how a heart so broken can go on beating, as if it were made for precisely this as if it knows the only cure for love is more of it, as if it sees the hearts sole remedy for breaking is to love still, as if it trusts that its own persistent pulse is the rhythm of a blessing we cannot begin to fathom but will save us nonetheless. Jan Richardson

13.01.2022 A beautiful friend posted this and thought it was so perfect for today. Sending extra love to all those who remember their Angel Dads today

12.01.2022 https://smct.org.au//celebrating-our-fathers-wherever-we-a Here is the video for anyone who didn't get the chance to watch the Father's Day Remembrance Service last Thursday evening. Such an honour to be part of such a special team Templeton Family Funerals and Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust

12.01.2022 I have learnt more and more to CELEBRATE the small stuff. Life is full of small stuff (for lack of a better word), the beautiful, messy moments which make our everyday living so worthwhile. It's the small stuff which families recall with love while planning their loved one's service and it is what is celebrated and honoured at the end of their life's journey on earth.

11.01.2022 Sending love to all those who are grieving this Christmas. For many this time of year can be the most difficult. Someone very loved is missing at the table as you gather. May you be comforted, loved and supported by those who journey alongside you. Xx.

08.01.2022 This year I am incredibly honoured to be part of something truly special. Everyone is welcome to join us on Thursday 3rd September at 7pm as we remember our heroes xx

08.01.2022 Celebrating International Womens Day yesterday. May each of us know and use the courage which lives deep within us.

08.01.2022 Thank you Kate for such a beautiful review. It truly was such a privilege to meet you and your precious family. Sending love xx

07.01.2022 Love has been woven intricately into the fabric of who we are. It is why it makes loss so painful. Part of our love and very being gets taken apart when we Grieve. Love in time begins to weave our souls back, never the same and ultimately changed forever. Today would have been your 94th Birthday. Happy Birthday to the Master Painter.

06.01.2022 There is sadness amongst love today. Let us always remember those who now journey without their dad by their side. Thinking of you today as you remember your wonderful Father/Grandpa/Great-Grandfather/Step-Father or Father figure and continue their legacy of love.

05.01.2022 Love is like the wind, you cant see it but you can feel it. Today I was so honoured to receive this beautiful bunch of roses (and card) right before I was to lead their loved ones service. Such a special family to think of me during such immense grief. Sending love to a vivacious and kind lady. X

05.01.2022 Sending love to all those with angel Mothers this Mother's Day. May you be surrounded by those who love you most. x

05.01.2022 I realised yesterday on the drive home from a funeral, that Grief was still very present in my life. Sometimes when I sit with families, they will ask me about my own experience with Grief. I am convinced that when we are open with our own Grief journey, we have the capacity to assist others in theirs. Many years ago I saw in my Nanna's house a piece of pottery. It is a type of pottery called Kintsugi. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the a...reas of breakage with liquid gold. Rather than trying to disguise the breakages, the gold highlights them and reconnects them back together. I cannot help but think of myself as the pot and the cracks my Grief. Grief is part of who I am, and no matter how much I might try to mend myself back together, it is only by allowing the gold to shine which ultimately brings connection and healing.

04.01.2022 Sending so much love to those who find today incredibly painful. Amongst the celebrations there is also mourning. Today brings us fresh memories of raw Grief. May each of you find Love amongst the sadness.

03.01.2022 Thinking of you Grandma always but especially today

01.01.2022 I had this urge last Sunday, despite being unwell, to visit my Grandmas grave. That somehow the Grief inside me had become unbearable and I needed to go and let it out. When you lose someone you love, Grief takes up residence in your home. Despite your best efforts to evict Grief it stays and so you learn to live with it and as a result develop ways to manage it. I say manage loosely because often Grief has a mind of its own and catches you off guard, like it did last Sunday.

01.01.2022 "One of the worst things we've ever done is convince each other that grief is linear (arranged in or extending along a straight or nearly straight line). Grief occupies a space that changes shape like the weather and that's ok". Remembering you today Grandma on the anniversary of your passing- and forever grateful to you for the gift of my job.