German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, once said: “Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”
While every life has been touched by death, I can imagine no greater grief than the inability to truly say goodbye to a loved one in the manner the deceased had sought to bid us farewell.
While terms like food poverty and fuel poverty are common in current discourse, funeral poverty was new to me.
That was until I met Linda Sterry, the manager who leads Funeral Link.
The origins of the charitybased at the Scotty Centre on Albert Street, stretch back to 2016 when concerned members of Dundee Pensioners Forum raised the escalating cost of funerals in the city.
They convened a coalition of cross-sector organisations, called the Funeral Poverty Action Group, and in 2018 Funeral Link was born.
Linda was appointed manager and, in their first three months of operation, Funeral Link supported 37 families, 21 sought funeral assistance and they saved a total of £10,000 for several families struggling under the weight of grief and the cost of a funeral.
I was stunned to discover that the cost of cremation is higher in Dundee than any other local authority in Scotland.
It is quite the juxtaposition to think that we have the lowest cost of living in the country but yet pay the highest price for dying.
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On 25 March 2019, the Evening Telegraph ran a front page story about a gentleman who lost his wife to an overdose.
Tragically, like many on a low income, he did not have enough money to pay for a funeral.
Quietly and without fanfare, Linda and her loyal colleague Doreen tracked him down, and via the generosity of a local funeral director, they were able to secure a funeral for his deceased wife within 24 hours.
https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/video-dundee-man-andy-begs-in-street-to-raise-money-to-bury-wife-three-months-after-her-death/
This is the value of the work Funeral Link do. Linda and Doreen are the real jewels in the crown of this fantastic organisation.
In particular, Linda, who grew up on the rural fringes of Dundee, studied at Bell Street Tech and was the second-ever female apprentice appointed at Michelin in 1989.
However, 20 years on, tragedy struck as she and her husband suffered the loss of their two year-old-son, Gregor.
Linda said: “Losing a child carries a sorrow that is just beyond words. It is a loss like no other.
“I feel I am now at a place, where I can use this experience to help others who are experiencing the trauma of bereavement.”
It is absolutely clear that she, through Funeral Link, is doing just that.
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