Share your funeral wishes with Co-op Funeralcare - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

Thinking ahead to a time when you will no longer be here is undoubtedly not a pleasant thought. The majority of us plan other big life events such as birthdays, weddings, baby showers and/or anniversaries down to a tee, however when it comes to funerals very few of us have detailed plans in place. If there's something in particular you have in mind, whether it’s something beautiful, something personal, or even something humorous, Co-op Funeralcare would like to know.

Here’s what David Collingwood, Head of Operations for Co-op Funeralcare has to say: “Funerals are very much about personal choice and reflecting the personality and interests of an individual. This is becoming increasingly evident through the growth we’ve seen in people choosing to pre-plan their own ceremonies using a funeral plan.”

Do you have a specific piece of poetry that you want read out by a certain someone? Maybe you’d request that all of your friends and family turn up in fancy dress? Or perhaps you already have in mind a certain song that will put a smile on everyone’s face...Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ and Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ are popular songs requested for funerals!

Co-op Funeralcare would like to know what your funeral wishes are, so please share them below and all who comment will be entered into a prize draw, where one lucky MNer will win a £300 voucher or their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Probably cheap, humanist, woodland burial, charity not flowers then a free bar. But whatever my fam want really; I'll be dead. 😵
If I had to choose one song- Sometimes it snows in April- Prince💜

I want to be cremated - a short service maybe someone could read something nice. Nothing special and yeah not too expensive hopefully.

a woodland burial would be nice, but not actually put too much thought in to it ;)

I would definitely want a cremation as I don't want to risk being buried alive! But I would want my family to make sure I am 100% dead before putting me in the furnace!

After that small detail is sorted, I don't really mind what the funeral is like, so long as my husband or family don't spend too much money on it - I don't want them to get into debt because of me. I would probably come back from the grave to tell my hubby off if he goes over budget ha ha!

No weeping at my grave or wasting too much time there either. I wont be there anymore. Hopefully having a whale of a time in heaven!

We both plan a very basic, no fuss, green funeral. Sites have been shortlisted so will only need to choose a coffin - cardboard or willow?

I wish to have my immediate family and close friends only but I also appreciate how much Agro this can cause so maybe not!?
I would like to be cremated and my ashes to be scattered somewhere my children enjoy being

My funeral wish is that I can make a video of myself singing the hymns that are going to be sung. (Obviously, these recordings would have had to have been done in advance)

Thank during the ceremony, when the priest says "And now, if you consult your song sheets, I would like you to accompany me in Nick's favourite psalm - and the only one he actually knew - Jerusalem."

Then someone would press a button to play the recording, and I could be seen on a screen singing along with the rest of the audience. Since I'd be dead, I wouldn't be embarrassed about how terribly off key and loud my singing was. Hopefully, having set this low base standard, the rest of the congregation would be encouraged to join in, on the principle that "Well, we can't be any worse than him."

(All the funerals I've been to, the singing is disappointingly tentative, because of the English affliction of embarrassment. I went to a wedding in Wales and they were fantastic singers.)

Would it be tasteless to play back a video of me singing?

To make it more pertinent still, I could have been recorded while lying horizontal in my 'coffin to be'

That might give people a laugh.

Would that be possible, Co-Operative Funeral Directors?

I think it's good to tell you family your wishes ahead of time
I want to be buried not cremated
Other than that I don't really care

I'd like something traditional and for people to remember my sense of humour and my home made cider!

I'd like my family not to feel pressured into spending on expensive coffins and flowers. I'd rather take that unnecessary concern away and have everything paid for and some nice basics picked in advance.

I haven't thought of it before but wouldn't want a fuss. Something low-key and environmentally friendly. Maybe be cremated and my ashes scattered somewhere that I love.

I have no specific requests, whatever my loved ones would think I would like would take great comfort in them picking things they knew I loved

On Death
Kahlil Gibran

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

This is the poem I would like to be read at my funeral. I would like a formal mass and then to be buried next to my DS

I’m with the first poster- it’s really for those left behind, so I would want my funeral to bring comfort to my family as much as it could.

As cheap as possible would hate people wasting money

I have made my feelings clear on the subject. I want the simplest funeral that you can get. I don't want flowers and I don't want my family to spend a fortune on having a wake either. A really simple service followed by my family and close friends coming back to the house to have a few drinks if they want and that's it.

I'd like I'd sleep when I'm dead played but maybe that's best for the after party!

Celebrate my life! I hope I get a full fun eugology like my best friends gran. A life well lived is what I want!

I haven't really thought about it, though i probably should. I've also never discussed it with DH so don't know what he would want either. I guess I've always just thought of it as being morbid but I suppose it's practical.

I don't want all the fuss and cost that seems to come with a funeral nowadays. Just a small cremation ceremony and to be scattered at the beach near my house. As for poems or songs, i'm not really that bothered, I'll leave it to the people who I've left behind to decide if they want to do anything like that or not. I don't like the idea of telling people what I want as I feel it disregards their wishes as to whether they want to take an active part or not.

I want to be cremated and sprinkled somewhere beautiful in the ocean. Funeral - no specific wishes, whatever those I love want to do for themselves.

Just please don't make a fuss

I like the idea of being cremated then my ashes being used as fertilizer for a sapling - that sapling then would be planted in a wood.

I don’t want anything religious ( I am a devout atheist) but I would like two songs played

Lady d’urbanville by cat Stevens

Wish you were here by Pink Floyd

They are my favourite songs

Everybody will wear black cos I am an old goth

Someone can stand up and say ‘she was a miserable old witch but she made fab cakes’

Then back to the pub for a good nosh up and drink

Sounds fab and I wish I could be there

I am put off having a head stone or memorial plaque as my DH feels it is his duty to attend his parents grave every month to change flowers etc.

I'd like one of those quickie cremations (they just do it immediately), then people can plan a party at their leisure. I'd like existential readings, and ample amounts of alcohol. Nothing religious. No physical memorial, people can either remember me or not.

I want simply, cheap and fun, after all funerals are for the living to say their final farewells. I will have some upbeat songs, not quite decided yet then it will be return to sender by Elvis or I did it my way by Frank. Then the my ashes to be scattered at sea. I don't want my family to be tied to a cemetery or graveyard ( I would really want them shot up into space and orbiting the earth but so not see how that can happen - unless any mumsnetters can help :)

I really don't want a funeral, but obviously it's going to happen one day. I'd like some of my favourite songs played. Definitely 'Wonderful' by Adam Ant. I want people to have a huge wake and have lots of fun. None of this moping around business. As for being cremated or buried...neither appeal to me.