UK Enterprise 2020

72 | UK Enterprise Awards 2020 Best Independent Bespoke Funeral Celebrant - England: Rachel Snowball Grief is unfortunately something that sadly and inevitably happens to us all. In the process of rationalising and coming to terms with the fact that your loved one is no longer physically present in your life, making those first tentative readjustments can be such a difficult process. Supporting families during such difficult challenges is Rachel Snowball founder of Rachel’s Eulogies. Recently recognised as the one of the best independent bespoke funeral celebrants in England, we profiled Rachel and the wonderful work she provides as Rachel’s Eulogies. Jun20348 At Rachel’s Eulogies, Rachel Snowball’s role as a funeral celebrant is to support families and friends to construct and present funeral ceremonies, which perfectly matches with individual cultures, beliefs, values and philosophies. All of her ceremonies are excellently presented in their vernacular with the appropriate sensitivity and compassion, as well as a reflection of the next of kin’s love and pride. A good funeral ceremony will connect people to the deceased, enabling goodbyes to be meaningful and poignant. A bespoke funeral ceremony is how family and friends choose to say goodbye, and it is Rachel’s role to facilitate this by sharing her experience, expertise and library of resources. Ongoing dialogue with professionals, combined with study with the International College of Celebrancy based in Australia, has helped and supported Rachel over the past eight years. However, the best learning has been through experience and learning about what makes someone tick. It is important to Rachel to get to know their individuality, habits, quirks, gifts, abilities and ambiguities. She considers it to a privilege to have opportunity to get close to so many, as this helps Rachel to create ceremonies which contain layers of meaningful exploration and discovery. This is perhaps Rachel’s Eulogies unique selling point, every ceremony is totally hand crafted, and genuinely bespoke for you. Ceremonies can take on many different guises. They are not, nor should not, be confined to the local crematorium. Homes or a special public place should not be discounted, and individuals are entitled to be creative and grieve. At Rachel’s Eulogies, they will support and encourage this process, as Rachel understands that one fit will not suit all. Rachel writes and executes ceremonies designed to create a safe resting place for an individual’s most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so they do not have to carry these feelings around with them. This is because she believes that we all need such places of ritual safekeeping and so Rachel creates a safe place or a celebratory place for people and communities’ to express their thoughts, feelings and aspirations. Creating funeral ceremonies during the Covid-19 pandemic has been, as you can imagine, incredibly heart-breaking. Imagine only being able to have a funeral ceremony with just a few people present. Even then those people are separated by household, and family members are unable to hug and cry in each other’s arms, they cannot give the other the strength or support that only comes from human interaction. As such, Rachel has had to adapt and quickly embrace a new way of working. It’s short comings were observed and Rachel’s Eulogies worked exceptionally hard to compensate, and when Rachel presented to a congregation of five people, it has been difficult to not become emotionally affected by the pure sadness of this moment. However, one of the most heartrending aspects of this tragic time has been the outpouring from the community as the hearse travels to the deceased home address. Neighbours came out from their homes and clapped, people left things along the journey, people wanted and needed to say goodbye. Rachel says, “Never have I seen stronger and conclusive evidence that people need people, I have reflected upon this substantially”. Ultimately, Rachel’s Eulogies is a learning enterprise, and Rachel knows what a genuine privilege and an extraordinary responsibility the role as a celebrant is. As such, she is able to be an advocate for families at a time of great sensitivity, understanding relationships and successfully communicating pride, care and sensitivity, in a truly bespoke approach. A service she hopes to continue providing in the years to come, ensuring that families and friends can have the perfect goodbye to their loved ones. Contact: Rachel Snowball Company: Rachel’s Eulogies Web Address: www.rachels-eulogies.co.uk