Freeman Brothers was first established as a funeral director in Horsham, West Sussex, in 1855. The company now has a further three offices across the county – in Billingshurst, Crawley and Hurstpierpoint. Since 2019, the team has been organising a community event to support those who are bereaved, and they are looking forward to the 2024 event…
It’s that time of year again, and we are now less than eight weeks away from one of my favourite annual occasions: our Community Remembrance Service. This year’s event takes place on Wednesday 4th December, starting at 7.00pm both in person at Hills Cemetery Chapel in Horsham, and live via our YouTube channel.
This is our fifth event of this kind, and that feels like a brilliant milestone. I’m proud that we were able to adapt and have no breaks in our offering during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic – those who were with us at that point know that this was a significant leap for us, as online video was not something we had done previously. Having made a change to how we offered the event, it was then important to us that we continue producing an online version. It had been great to receive feedback and learn that this was something people valued, and that made it an even easier decision to keep going.
So now, those who are able to join us in person do, and those who would rather watch from their own home – and at a time of their choosing – can also do so. Whilst we decided to continue with a virtual event, it had also been important to us to invite a live audience to join us as soon as it was safe to do so. This is because our ethos had always been about community and connection, and the atmosphere each time has proven this.
We aim to replicate the same experience for those attending remotely as for those who join us in person. If you’ve been here before, you’ll know that means that there’s an interactive element to our Service, and we encourage participation in this for those at home by offering to send them a pack free of charge.
Another way that you can get involved is by submitting names to be read during the Act of Remembrance. This is an opportunity to have the names of those we miss read aloud. We offer the chance to include pets as well as people, as we know that pet bereavement can be just as challenging. It also doesn’t matter how long ago the person or animal died – bereavement has no fixed timeline, and there are those we still miss many years later.
If you would like to get involved in any of these ways, you can email us in order to arrange participation. Invitations will be going out to our customers in the coming weeks as well, and we are more than happy for you to share details of this event with those who live further afield.
The exact content of the evening is a closely-guarded secret, however we will as usual have poems, music, and readings, all of which are carefully selected in order to be non-religious. We are aware that people have varying beliefs, and this is how we ensure that everyone can be included.
Our colleagues are looking forward to sharing this event with you again, and it will as always take place during National Grief Awareness Week. This event launched in the same year as ours, and so it will also be the fifth time that the Good Grief Trust has asked the nation to come together and recognise that grief is an important life incident which we will all experience, and that can require a lot of community support.
With plenty more behind the scenes content to come via our social media channels, we look forward to bringing you another edition of the Freeman Brothers Community Remembrance Service in December.
