Have you ever thought about your funeral? Or how you would like to say goodbye? Now, thanks to a Dundee funeral director, you wishes can come true. Below we share 5 of the most unusual funeral requests in and around Dundee.
From personalised coffins to painted hearses and pyrotechnics, Affertons Funeral Care’s director Paul Craigie has seen it all, so nothing surprises him. The Dundee-based funeral home is making wishes come true for families.
Paul, who has 17 years’ experience in the industry, always aims to deliver what individuals and families want as they say their final goodbyes; it is one thing he and Affertons pride themselves on. He has always worked hard at going the extra mile to make even the most creative and ambitious funerals become a reality.
Saying Goodbye Your Way
And making funerals personal and individualistic is the theme for Affertons Funeral Care’s recent advertising campaign Saying Goodbye Your Way. The campaign features four unique characters featured on giant billboards around Dundee city centre to encourage people to think differently about their own personal send-off.
To coincide with the Saying Goodbye Your Way campaign, Paul recalls five of the most bizarre funeral requests that he helped tailor to suit each of the deceased.
1. The motorbike funeral
One he remembers particularly involved a biker who wanted to be transported on a motorbike with the coffin as a side car. According to the family, he had always been a bit of a rebel so they wanted the funeral to be memorably anarchic. It was!
2. A stellar goodbye
He once worked with a pyrotechnics company in London. So, when a family recently asked if he could fulfil the deceased’s greatest desire, he could and did. She wanted her remains shot into space in a rocket. Paul carefully and safely built a rocket, which was set off over the River Tay. Paul added: “I was happy to oblige and together we shot the rocket off over the River Tay.”
3. Superhero send-off
A very recent unusual – and extremely sad – funeral was for a young lad who loved cartoons and played Fortnite all the time was laid to rest in a Fortnite-pictured coffin, taken to his final resting place by horse and carriage whilst his heroes, Batman, Spiderman and Captain America ran along side.
4. The Wrong Way
One family wanted the funeral cortege to enter the crematorium the wrong way because the deceased was a person who went against the flow.
5. Personalised coffin
Another family asked if it would be possible to carry out the funeral using their own flame painted hearse and have their loved one laid to rest in a ‘Bat Out of Hell’ themed coffin, The individual was a Meat Loaf tribute act.
A funeral is a celebration not a mourning
Paul, who runs the business with co-director Ronnie Robb, said: “We like personalising funerals but for them to work well you have to be a skilled listener to glean exactly what the family wants. In fact, I’d say listening is the most important skill of any funeral director.”
Launched in 2013, Affertons Funeral Care has always been renowned for its personalised service and has found that, post-Covid, people are having more open conversations about funerals and making plans for how they are going to say goodbye.
Paul explained why he thinks this is: “The reasons there are more open conversation about how people want things to pan out are simply down to social media along with the huge increase in younger people passing away due to drugs and suicide.
“People are much more aware of death and dying now than they ever have been and, as a consequence, think about their own mortality.
“Death used to be a taboo subject and kept hush hush in the main – not anymore.”
Plans for Paul’s own funeral have begun. In fact, 10 years ago he purchased a grave next to my family’s in Birkhill Cemetery so they could all be together. He added: “However, God willing, I’m not planning on using it anytime soon.”
Blaze at premises
Last year was a challenging year for the funeral firm, not only because of Covid and restrictions imposed on funeral arrangements, but because its premises was destroyed by fire in January 2020.
After the blaze at Clepington Road, staff members at Affertons relocated to different temporary premises in Dundee before opening a new site (pictured above) this month at 207 Strathmartine Road. The new premises have created more space and increased technology for Affertons, meaning they can now offer live streaming of services, something that has gained in popularity since the pandemic.
If you would like to arrange a special send-off for yourself, or a loved one, Paul, Ronnie and their team can make it happen. Get in touch with Affertons today to ‘say goodbye your way’.
