Commiserate and Celebrate

By: Michael Lynch & James MacLeod – Tobin Brothers Funerals
Friday, June 13, 2014

An increasing number of Australians want joy not sorrow at funerals. That’s a key finding of a survey carried out on behalf of the Australian Funeral Directors’ Association (AFDA) by McCrindle Research. The national survey of 519 Australians over the age of 50 conducted in April 2014 points to a marked change in peoples’ attitudes to death and funerals. Another significant finding was that two-thirds of those questioned expressed a preference for cremation over burial.

The survey suggests that where once a death was followed by a serious, solemn and sorrowful funeral service many people today (apart from those in need of the more prescriptive religious service) are leaning more and more towards celebrating a life than mourning a death. The findings of the AFDA survey has come as no surprise to Tobin Brothers Funerals Managing Director, James MacLeod.

“For close to two decades this company has developed and promoted life-centered funeral services. Because we sensed a distinct change in public attitude to death and funerals, the company decided early in the new millennium to replace its corporate image with a new and softer livery and take the somewhat daring step of including in its branding the by-words ‘celebrating lives’.  I say ‘daring’ because I don’t for a minute suggest that every funeral can be a celebration of life. The age of the deceased and the circumstance of the death will obviously dictate the tone of the funeral, but the fact is, the vast majority of our client families are telling us they want the funeral service for their loved one to be a celebration of life.”

James MacLeod says a service of life celebration can be achieved in many ways the choice of venue for which could be a golf club; restaurant, reception centre, football oval, the MCG, on a beach, at a local park or at any one of Tobin Brothers Funerals 21 beautifully appointed chapels.At a funeral in the United States recently, the casket bearing the body of a former boxer was placed in the centre of a boxing ring, while here in Melbourne some years ago, the coffin of an ex railway worker was conveyed to the cemetery on an open train carriage.Audio visual photographic presentations have become for many a highlight of life celebrations while musically, virtually anything is acceptable, even Highway to Hell. Once heard only on FM radio, the ACDC track is amongst the most frequently chosen songs for a young person’s funeral whilst more introspective choices such as My Way, Unforgettable and The Wings Beneath My Wings, have became anthems of the elderly.attending them.

Significantly, 51 per cent of respondents to the AFDA survey said they viewed funerals as a normal part of life while 12 per cent said they actually enjoyed attending them.

Leave a comment
Name*:
Email:
Comment*:
Please enter the numbers and letters you see in the image. Note that the case of the letters entered matters.

Comments

Please wait

Previous Posts

#SayItNow Returns for 2024

#SayItNow returns for 2024 #SayItNow returns in 2024 as Victorians join the conversation to celebrate the important people in their lives. Victorians young and old are being encouraged to celebra...

Introducing… Tough Times from the Heart

Introducing… Tough Times from the Heart Tobin Brothers Funerals has joined forces with SPAN CV to bring greater awareness to suicide prevention. 3144 Australians died by suicide in 2021, accordin...

The day Queen Elizabeth II came to Frankston

It was Friday 7th March 1986 and I was 15 years old, attending Ballam Park Technical School in Frankston.  One of the largest schools in the area, Ballam Park had been selected for Que...

Celebrating Father Gerard Dowling

  Today we would like to pay tribute to Fr Gerard Dowling OAM DE. In recent weeks he celebrated his 90th birthday and also the 49th anniversary of him being on air with the Family Counsellor...

Tobin Brothers are here to help

  Funerals are an important time for family and friends to come together as a community to express our love and process our thoughts and feelings about the death of someone we love. The funer...

Coronavirus Assistance

On 30 January 2020, the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. ...

Tobin Brothers Foundation Awards the Forgotten & Ignored

There are so many people in our community who are repeatedly ignored, unacknowledged or forgotten and the many small organisations striving to help them are fighting an uphill battle to obtain fund...

Black Saturday Fires 10 Years On

Ten years on and this is the first time we have shared reflections on Tobin Brothers involvement in the Black Saturday fires and their aftermath. The 7th of February is my wife Louise’s birthday.&...

Funerals Are Too Important To Leave To Just Anyone

As Managing Director of Australia’s largest owned family funeral company, Tobin Brothers Funerals, I would like to make the following comments on the widely reported alleged coffin swapping by Hart...

It’s your funeral, an investigation of death care in the Funeral Industry in Australia Comment

  As Managing Director of Tobin Brothers I’d like to make the following comments on a recently released paper “It’s your funeral, an investigation of death care in the Funeral Industry...