Alan James, former I.T. Contractor and now manager of Swansea based John Edwards Funeral Directors tells The Handshake how more people are opting for bespoke funerals, to reflect their loved-one’s personality... Twelve years ago Alan took over John Edwards Funeral Directors from John Edwards, his father in law. He’d spent years listening, learning and helping John whenever he visited Swansea from his home in Essex. Alan says, “I noticed that, as John was ageing, he was becoming more tired of running the firm so I decided to offer to take over. This suggestion was met with a warm hug of gratitude from John, and within a matter of weeks I was a full time Funeral Director.” “Was that it – didn’t you have to go on a course, or something?” I ask, surprised. “Not exactly,” Alan replied. “ I’d known the practical side of the business for over twenty years from my courting days, and, among other things, had driven hearses, watched embalming and done my fair share of removals…” I cut him off there. “Removals? Please explain.” “Moving the dead person from where they died to our Chapel of Rest,” he informs me with a grin.
At some funerals, amusing choices of music are made, like Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” and Arthur Brown’s “Fire” which was the apt choice at a recent cremation. The coffin of a marijuana-smoker was adorned with a wreath made of floral “grass” and a pretend joint. At the cremation, the deceased was accompanied by £50 of marijuana in his coffin, at the family’s request. “It’s what he would have wanted,” they explained to Alan! Indeed, it is all about what the deceased would have wanted: A particular shade of pink for the coffin was the important criteria for a family burying their grandmother whose favourite colour it was. The solution came in the form of a Dulux website colour card which Alan had provided, so that the family could be absolutely precise about the colour. Embarrassingly, the family made a particular point of thanking Alan for his help publicly at the funeral and revealing the story of the Dulux colour chart!
We then talk about Alan’s career in I.T. and his work as a project manager with BT and other large firms. The subject turns to outsourcing and I ask if there’s a parallel here with his Project Manager days and the Funeral Director business, though perhaps on a different scale.
Alan has also organised a funeral in Paris for a person who, sadly, died there, as a down-and-out. It was a cheaper option than a repatriation of the body; so, the family combined the funeral with a 5 day coach tour of Paris and cremated their relative while they were there. They went on a tour of the Père Lachaise Cemetery, where the graves of Oscar Wilde, Maria Callas, and Jim Morrison can also be seen. On boarding the coach for their return journey – ashes in tow – they commented jokingly to the driver that there was “one more” coming back.
“Yes. We have a core staff of three (including a lady funeral director). We have a hearse and a limousine but everything else is outsourced, from flowers to catering. All outsourcing is project-managed,” he says. “My address book is full of various suppliers, including lay-preachers, horse drawn hearses, opera singers, organists and even buglers and pipers!”
In terms of trends, Alan tells me that nowadays woodland burials are increasingly popular. These are burials in fields and meadows where there is no headstone and the precise location of the grave is not always shown. One enterprising tree growing company has recently exploited the 10 foot gaps between their plants by offering them as woodland burial plots.
Alan goes to on to explain that John Edwards Funeral Directors is popular because it offers families the option of having a bespoke funeral that reflects what the deceased enjoyed about life.
The conversation turns to memorable but more unusual funerals and as Alan tells me you can now have a motorcycle funeral, with the coffin in the sidecar. Another option is a double-decker bus. With the coffin downstairs and the family on the top deck, the bus tours memorable locations as the family hold their wake on the upper floor.
“Anyway, I also went on a course and became accredited by the National Association of Funeral Directors.”
“Although a bespoke funeral seems to be more favoured now we still do the standard funeral – after all, everyone’s needs are different. In response to demand, we introduced a ‘No Frills Funeral’ a few years ago, too. The main message that I try to get across to my customers is that the choice is theirs. I always try to encourage the family to tell me about the deceased and explore what sort of funeral they would prefer.” A recent survey that Alan had read suggested that around 60% of people don’t want a religious ceremony, but it can be hard to find a middle ground, as the other end of the spectrum – a humanist funeral – is not quite “spiritual” enough. www.biznetwales.co.uk
“I didn’t know you could do that,” I say, and Alan smiles and says, “Anything is possible - well, almost!”
You can contact Alan on 01792 771232 and find out more about John Edwards Funeral Directors at www.john-edwards-funerals.co.uk.
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