A Natural Undertaking

Carrie Weekes (left) and Fran Glover.

Possibly the most un-funereal undertakers that you could find, these two women have quietly set about bringing funerals into the 21^st century since they created A Natural Undertaking in 2014. Now in its tenth year, the Birmingham company has gathered awards and accolades along the way with their intelligent, responsive and creative approach to caring for the dead and the bereaved, and their determination to help families say goodbye in the way that is right for them, at a price they can afford.

The roots of A Natural Undertaking are buried deep in the past, Carrie’s mother died young, and it was the complete absence of relevance and meaning of her funeral, the impersonal detachment and lack of personal significance that sparked an anger within Carrie that simmered for twenty years before erupting into a determination to investigate why funerals in the UK are so poor.

A former librarian who had also worked in a role helping people to set up and run social enterprises, Carrie had spent two and a half years caring for her daughter through a serious illness. She was diagnosed on the day that Carrie had planned to start a training course in celebrancy, a course that obviously, she never got to do, but once her daughter had recovered, the deep-seated desire to do funerals differently took hold,

“Several of the children we got to know in hospital never got better. Those families are the ones who really need a service that is human and kind, and more importantly, led by them. The idea that these families would hand their dead child to a stranger to “look after” before a funeral just nagged at me. What if we gave these people information about what is possible? Would they still make the same choices?”

Like the best of librarians, Carrie set about doing her research. She sought out some of the best practitioners around the country, both traditional and pioneering, and contacted them, spending time working alongside them and asking questions. Carrie is very good at asking questions.

Fran Glover knew Carrie through their husbands, who had been friends for years. Fran ran her own successful marketing company and she offered to help Carrie get started by defining her business and marketing position. She was aware of what Carrie wanted to do and the notion of creating personal funerals resonated with her own experiences. Fran has a strong eye for detail and she could already see more ways to support families in need.

By the end of their first morning together, Fran was hooked. “I’d got to a point in my career where I felt I’d achieved a lot, but also felt that something was missing. I didn’t really get involved in the community where I lived and I felt like I needed to do something that contributed more to society in general; something that had real purpose and meaning.”

Working together, the beginnings of an idea started to take shape, of a different kind of undertaking service for the people of their community in Kings Heath and Moseley and ultimately the whole of Birmingham and beyond. An ethical, emotionally intelligent service that would dispense with all the layers of rigid assumptions about what a funeral should look like, all the incomprehensible, meaningless traditions that have built up over the years, and be completely responsive to the needs of families left behind when someone dies.

Together, they set about making the idea a reality. In November 2014 ‘A Natural Undertaking’ was launched, with the help of a small start-up loan and huge amounts of research and preparation. From the beginning, it was important to get the look and feel right, and the Natural Undertaking website beautifully reflects the ethos and difference of the business. Fresh, simple and beautiful, it is light years away from the traditional doom and gloom horse drawn carriages and faux sympathy of a myriad of other funeral director websites. For anyone going online to try and find some information about what they need to do to organise a funeral, landing on the homepage here would surely elicit a sigh of relief. There’s plenty of information, but it’s not overwhelming, and it’s written in a natural, straightforward way.

The business model is a simple one. Carrie, Fran – or their other undertakers Suzy and Kerri, the newest team. member, will answer the phone to you. It will be one of the four who you meet, who will listen to what you need them to do, and who will assume responsibility for making sure everything is done as you want. Probably one of the first things they will say to you when you call is that you don’t need to use an undertaker if you don’t want to, and they are more than happy to help you as much or as little as you want. If you decide to go ahead and engage them to help you, their prices are transparent and extremely reasonable, and you can choose exactly which services you need.

It will be one of the four women who collect the person who has died, bringing assistance if needed. If you are with the person who has died, they will make certain that you have had as much time with them as you want, there is no need to rush over in the middle of the night to take the body away unless you definitely want them to. It will be the same person who will wash and dress your relative, and place them in their coffin or shroud, and it will be the same person who supports you until the day of the burial or cremation, throughout that day and afterwards. They work seamlessly as a team, effortlessly assuming either the lead or the supportive role depending on who has taken responsibility for each family. And they positively encourage you and your family to have the freedom to do what comes naturally to you.

When you meet with any of the Natural Undertaking team, they will want to know all about the person who has died, something the vast majority of funeral arrangers often miss out. Talking about your relative and the things they did and liked when they were alive can often spark ideas for how to commemorate them, ways to make the event meaningful and personal, and Fran, Carrie, Suzy or Kerri will pick up on ideas and find ways to weave them into the ceremony or the day as a whole.

On one of the days that we visited them, a detailed funeral had been arranged and we were able to accompany them from the early morning briefing around Fran’s kitchen table all the way through the day until the grave was filled in by family members. The farewell had been planned by the woman who had died when she met with Fran some months previously, and every tiny detail had been taken care of. Baskets of feathers, glitter glue, stickers, pens and tissue paper for decorating the coffin sat waiting to be packed into the car, different coloured luggage labels were tied around sparklers, with printed instructions attached so that guests knew what to do with them, candles in storm lanterns had been prepared for assistants to take along the guard of honour to light the sparklers with – hours of preparation and care had gone into this one day, along with detailed consideration of timings and risk assessments.

The day went without a hitch, from the gentle transfer from the fridge in the mortuary, to the children running ahead of the coffin at the natural burial ground, spreading bubbles in the sunshine, accompanied by chanting and drumming. Gently, quietly supported by Fran, with Carrie and other assistants in the background, the family and friends had created exactly the event that this woman had wanted and they honoured her memory in an unforgettable day. The unobtrusive, supportive presence among them of two women determined to help them make the day a meaningful and memorable event was probably not even noticed by most people there, which is exactly as it should be.

A Natural Undertaking has a permanent home right in the heart of the community in Vicarage Road, Kings Heath. Carrie and Fran found a property for sale in just the location they wanted, it had been a hairdressers (appropriately enough called Curl Up and Dye…) and the two of them spent months converting it to an airy, modern and bright space where families can make funeral arrangements and spend time with their relative before opening in May 2018.

You’ll notice it because of the stylish exterior with the signature Natural Undertaking branding, but your eye might also be caught by the shiny white cars on the forecourt, the versatile Ford Tourney and the pair of white eco-friendly hearses- both fully electric and adapted from the Nissan Leaf. The original small Leaf with it’s discreet, soft shape and huge picture window, and the new large Leaf with a more traditional hearse shape.

The premises at Vicarage Road are completely unlike a traditional funeral home -it’s all white paint and wooden flooring throughout the public area and the sunlit reception space is furnished with comfortable seating, bright cushions and a low coffee table. Big canvases are propped up on a shelf above the sofa showing beautiful photos from different funerals, and a door opens onto a corridor past double doors with frosted glass panels (this is the mortuary, fully equipped with everything needed to look after those in their care).

At the end of the corridor, past the little kitchen and loo is the room where you can spend time with the person who has died, a simple space with natural daylight spilling through the partially frosted window, and state of the art lighting that can be used in the evenings and winter months.

When they opened the premises, Carrie and Fran held a series of open days, during which visitors could look round all of the premises (they locked the fridge and removed names from the whiteboard to ensure privacy, then opened the mortuary doors to anyone wanting to look inside) or join free drop in sessions or a Death Cafe – having premises of their own has opened up so many possibilities, and they are determined to make the best use of them for awareness raising, gatherings and generally continuing their work to demystify death.