Living legacies

Family Directed Home Funerals

Family Directed Home Funerals

Living Legacies’ family-directed home funerals are a caring and environmentally responsible funeral alternative promoting the use of natural processes, loving time-honoured practices, and sustainably produced, biodegradable products.
 
It provides people with healthy choices and a means of making informed decisions about their life and death.

Family-directed home funerals is an advisory service Living Legacies offers to families who choose to arrange a natural funeral themselves with or without employing a funeral director. To do this we provide guidance and support in advance of need, with everything from information about your rights and responsibilities, keeping the body cool, completing paperwork, and transporting the body, to welcoming guests to the home, answering the phone and making cups of tea.

It is a valuable resource for families who want to fully participate in the death care process but aren’t quite sure how to do it.
It bridges the wide gap between doing everything yourselves, and employing a funeral director to do it all for you. The process can help bring families together, save on expensive funeral costs and provide a more memorable, personalised life celebration.

Please note! This service is available to families and individuals who have already either:
1. read Living Legacies – a family funeral handbook for an evergreen world, or
2. attended a Living Legacies workshop, or
3. had a private consultation to discuss and plan a funeral.

This is to ensure that families are aware of what they need to know and do well in advance. People who have not made decisions or discussed their wishes with their whanau before someone dies will need to go to a funeral director or make all the arrangements themselves.

A Living Legacies family-directed home funeral has 4 significant aspects to it:

1. The practical, physical details of the disposition of a dead body.
Most people have never needed to arrange a funeral for someone they love, and few have even seen a dead body, but it’s something that many of us will face at some time in our lives and being prepared can make this easier. This service assists with information about the rights and responsibilities of the next-of-kin and supports the whole family through the practical aspects of after-death care on a day-by-day basis.

2. The psychological and emotional readjustment to the inevitability and finality of death.
Remember that this is a normal process, although it is often very painful. A grieving person often feels they are going crazy and will never be able to function again. We offer support on your journey, someone who will listen to you, explain the process, offer practical suggestions and be there for you. Being part of a well-informed team, be it your family or group of friends, who’re going down the same path with you, can be the best support possible.

3. The spiritual context in which a person perceives her/his life, which includes the big issues of philosophy, values, belief, purpose and meaning.
For some people, churches and other religious groups provide a spiritual perspective, but for many, organised religion does not allow them freedom to explore and satisfy their spiritual needs. For some people religious references can seem irrelevant or even offensive. We can help you to create a ceremony which is personally meaningful and truly celebrates the life of your loved one.

4. The environmental emphasis on the need to safeguard the fragile ecosystem of the Earth for present and future generations to enjoy.
We do this by using only biodegradable coffins, and promoting natural, healthy, non-toxic practices.
Living Legacies’ family-directed home funerals combine all these important factors, creating a unique, holistic service which not only helps with the healing process of your family and friends, but also that of the Earth.

A Family-directed Home Funeral is one of the best living legacies you can leave for your family. It will leave them a stronger, more cohesive group of people who really appreciate and value each other. It will set an example of personal responsibility for our planet. And it will help everyone remember you for the things that were important to you.

​Please enquire here for more information.