Lucy Symons is a funeral celebrant based in SW London
“As a celebrant, Lucy sensitively delivers an exceptional service.”
As a celebrant, I am unaffiliated with any religion, however, I am able to facilitate the sort of service you wish. If this involves prayer or any religious music, I am very happy to help. I can suggest poetry or music if you would prefer, but you may already have a very clear idea about the approach you wish to take. There are no standards, no rights and wrongs; we can make your service as individual as the person we are honouring and between us find exactly what is required.
There is no “right way” in a funeral; let’s discover the “best way” between us.
Your service will be bespoke. I do not use any templates or pre-written scripts. Together we will decide what is the best approach, and together we will decide how much you wish to be involved. There are no rules - to life or to death, to grieving or to a funeral - we will start with a blank page and create between us the most personal way to mark the occasion.
For the service itself, between us, we choose meaningful music and words. In some situations a slideshow of images may suit; we may find appropriate poetry or other readings, personal letters; we can play video clips; you may wish to invite people to place flowers, cards with memories, personal items on the coffin. This is the celebration for your loved one, and you may choose to do that in any way that is most poignant to you - there are very few rules!
Frequently a family member says to me after a service: “I really enjoyed that, is that wrong?” Nothing could make me happier than to find a way for a person and the life they have lived to be celebrated in a way which brings joy. In my experience, every life contains a story worth telling.
Please give me a call and we can chat about your hopes and expectations and discuss the options you have. There is no “right way” in a funeral; let’s discover the best way between us.
“Thank you Lucy, and also many thanks for your calm and graceful steering of our 'organic' celebration. I could not have wished for better. Everyone I spoke to praised you, and my daughter especially remarked what a wonderful instrument your voice is.”
"Your service was wonderful and I would heartily and emphatically recommend you to others. Those families who are grieving for their departed loved ones can relax in the knowledge that you, Lucy, will take care of everything and pull the eulogy, tributes, introducing those who’d like to speak and lastly, the committal speech, which was, for my mother, so poignant. You allowed us to pay the upmost respect and love to our beloved mother and from my father’s view, his wife. Your voice, intonations, timings were spot on. I hope one day I could be more like you in your, charisma and respectful gentleness in delivering a truly moving narration service."
"I’m so glad you held the ceremony. Both of us felt you did a wonderful job and kept the service running smoothly. We were both quite nervous about the funeral, probably because it was for our mother. But we both felt, as soon as we started speaking on the phone, that we could relax a bit. It really was a wonderful service and you are a huge part of that. Thank you for your support and hard work through out. We will never forget you."
"Thank you so much for your perfect delivery, sentiment and timing you spoke and conveyed my words and feelings exactly as I had felt them. You made this very painful, difficult and complex day beautiful and flow with grace. Thank you so much for easing my sadness. You gave us all much comfort . My sincere heartfelt thanks"
"Thank you so much for your lovely email and for all you did for us for the funeral service. It really was very important for us all and you read so beautifully. I had no idea there were so many things to sort out and think about and was so grateful that you, Jacqui and Nick were so amazing in helping us through so calmly."
"I wanted to write to express my gratitude to you for leading such a beautiful service; even though we were thousands of miles away we felt deeply involved and a full part of the family. As you noted, my mother was remarkable woman and you did such a great job of capturing her many, varied and unique qualities. I would also like to thank you for reading our letter in my place, I would have liked to be there to read it myself but you delivered it with precisely the right mix of gravitas and levity. Thank you so much for that. The role that you play in providing peace to families who are not looking for a final ceremony tinged with religious overtones is absolutely crucial. I realize that I have said thank you several times already but let me express my sincere gratitude once again."