Pre-paid funerals – Time to say Goodbye

We are asked about pre-paid funeral plans often, and we understand that people commonly want to have everything sorted before their death for peace of mind and to help their families. However, we have decided not to offer further pre-paid funeral plans as in our experience, finding repeatedly they failed both families and us.

We have tried a few different companies over our years and sadly have been unable to find a company offering the support we feel is needed. Our experience is that the management fees are high, the investment gains low, transparency lacking and the benefits fall mainly to the pre-paid companies themselves. We felt ourselves censored by the rules around such plans, unable to speak freely as to what we would consider best for people.

For anyone wanting to pay for their funeral in advance we strongly recommend they simply save or invest the money themselves in the same way they would choose to for any other funds, and rest assured a bank will honour a funeral director’s invoice at the time of need. In addition record your funeral wishes so that family know your hopes and intentions, which will give them both clarity and funds to carry out your funeral.

If you tie up your money in a pre-paid plan you lose money to the management fee, and you lose flexibility as they are normally tied to one funeral director. Should you move or they change, or your wishes change, your new plan may not be accepted on the same terms.

The rules around pre-paid plans have tightened up in recent years which is definitely a step in the right direction, but historically plans were guilty of using funds for reasons not disclosed to plan-holders, or of offering value only if no details were changed at all since the original intentions were set out. Life doesn’t always go to plan, and it is true that often neither does death, and we believe your funds should allow for that.

We are always happy to meet and talk through funeral wishes with anyone wanting to plan their funeral in advance, and can then keep your wishes on record. We make no charge for this, and there is no obligation to carry out your funeral with us. Or you are welcome to simply download our funeral wishes document and use that yourself.

If you already have a pre-paid funeral plan with us, rest assured we will of course fulfil your wishes to the best value possible following all the terms of your plan that we will absolutely still uphold.

 

 

Many of us look to online reviews for advice and recommendations for all sorts of aspects of life, and they can be a useful indicator to families when considering choice of funeral director. For us at ARKA its tricky though, as we don’t like to contact families about giving us a review unless they’ve explicitly offered. We feel it’s best not to contact people we’ve supported unless necessary, as we know they have a lot to deal with following a funeral. So, we’re putting the message out there now that if any of you have worked with us and would be willing to say something online about that experience, we would be so grateful. We are all for sharing experiences and for people to gain information from those who have experienced us for themselves.

If you are happy to leave us a Google review you can do so by opening Google Maps and ensure you are signed in. Once you find Arka Original Funerals, Islingword Road, on the left, scroll down and click “write a review”. In the window that appears, click the stars to give a score. You can also write a review.

If you use Trustpilot then head there – https://www.trustpilot.com/ login and search for ARKA Original Funerals and leave a review. If you need any help with the process, please do feel free to get in touch with us.

Finally, if you ever feel like you would be happy to share your experience of bringing about a funeral with us, maybe with a photo or two and a bit of writing then we would love to share your story on our website and/or our social media. If this sounds like something you might be willing to do, please do get in touch as we would love to share your story in whatever way you are willing. Any photos are particularly appreciated, as a picture ‘is worth a thousand words’ or so they say.

 

 

We wanted to thank everyone for joining us on 10^th November 2023 for our 20 year celebration. We had a wonderful night and it gave us an opportunity to look back over the years, to remember and commemorate with families who have trusted us to look after their loved ones and support them through the years. We all walked through the streets of our community here in Hanover, Brighton with lanterns, banners and photos of loved ones. We were led through the streets by the fabulous Voodoo Love Orchestra, so a big thank you to everyone on the procession, to our community for joining in and their encouraging whoops and cheers! and of course to our band of volunteers who worked hard to keep everyone safe.

When we got to St Lukes Church, we were hosted beautifully by Deacon Julie Newson who offered us the amazingly peaceful and atmospheric St Lukes church. We had wonderful food provided by Tilt and singing by the fabulous Jam Tarts choir led by our very own multi talented and ‘multi hatted’ Li Mills.

We had a really good discussion led by Rehana Rose with Caroline Lucas MP, Hannah Thompson and Jane Fox. We sang, we remembered and we looked at photos. All in all it was an inspiring evening, full of love and memories. One of the main things we hoped to achieve was to have a discussion about community, how we look after each other, how we look after each other when people we love die, how can we help, practically and emotionally. It’s a huge subject and one we will never tire of discussing. We feel so blessed to be located in such an amazing community, we hope that we add to that by providing a good service – and to be perfectly honest it’s not all about us, definitely not, but it was good to celebrate being here, in amongst you all.

In addition to those mentioned above, the evening would not have been as wonderful without the help and support of the following who we are so thankful to:

Helena and Same Sky for the lanterns
Lex Clarke-Kent for photography
Jake of Sussex Willow Coffins for the willow panels
Dagmara Rudkin for our banner
Hein Tang for filming the event

 

 

 

 

ARKA has been involved in your community for 20 years and supported many funerals.

Come join us in an evening of procession, reflection, togetherness and recognition of the journey that we are all taking, in life and death.

We want to say thank you for trusting us at one of the most difficult times in your life.

Come share memories, music, song, food and drink. It will be an interactive experience and we also have speakers including the wonderful Caroline Lucas.

We are encouraging people to make banners, flags with names, words, anything that encapsulates the memory of your loved one to carry on the procession.

There will be a screen at St Lukes, so if you wish to have a photo of the person you are remembering please send us a photo by email.

If you want to come along you are very, very welcome. We look forward to sharing the evening with you, whatever your experience.

It’s a way of saying thank you, a way of being together to commemorate our own journeys through doing this work and learning from and honouring all the amazing people we have encountered through the 20 years.

Please click here to book your free place.

 

Find out more about Direct Cremation through Arka

 

 

 

FUNERAL ARRANGER AND SUPPORT VACANCY

 

Full Time 24 hours per week over 3 days.

Permanent (after passing a 6 month probationary period)

Salary after probation £16,848 (pro rata from a full time salary of £28,080)

Probation salary £15,600 (pro rata from a full time salary of £26,000

Arka Original Funerals is a vibrant, modern funeral directors. We specialise in bespoke, beautiful funerals. Working with a wide range of clients in the Sussex area we support people to make the right choices for them and their friends and family when someone dies. We can arrange and support highly formal religious ceremonies through to the most unique events and direct cremation.

We now need to recruit a part time funeral arranger to support the business in our day to day operations.

We are looking for a self-motivated, confident individual who shares our passion for choice and quality of service. You will need to be calm, respectful and organised. We are looking for someone who has good attention to detail, the person in this role will need to notice the small details that contribute to our high standards of presentation. The role is a hybrid from the traditional role of Funeral Arranger, we would like to employ someone who can support families to arrange funerals but also support practically on the day of the funeral and get involved in the practical day to day operational side of things.  For this reason you will also need to be physically strong (our test would be to lift a 11 stone person up or downstairs on a stretcher with one other person). You will be involved in all practical aspects of our work and for that reason need to be entirely and intrinsically trustworthy and respectful.

The working days will normally be our office opening hours but this can and will vary in this role and you will also be on-call for one week in five (additional payments are made for being on-call and if you are called out). We welcome applications from people with or without previous experience.

Please click here to download the full job description and person specification for further details. If you are interested in applying for this role please send your CV and covering letter to Sarah Clarke-Kent, Arka Original Funerals, 136 Islingword Road, Brighton BN2 9SH or email to sarah@arkafunerals.co.uk.

Closing date Friday 30^th October 2022 5pm. 1^st round interviews are scheduled for Thursday 10^th November 2022.

If you haven’t heard back from us by this date please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful. Thank you for your interest in this role and in Arka Original Funerals.

 

 

 

Three years ago a filmmaker approached us, as well as other funeral directors, to film us as we worked with families whilst supporting them with their funeral arrangements. It was a difficult decision but we felt an important piece of work to be done to enable the public to be more informed and empowered throughout the process of saying goodbye. We would like to say thank you to the families who allowed Rehana Rose to film at such poignant moments and to Rehana herself for putting together such a beautiful piece of work. We are very excited to share with you the trailer for this brand new documentary.

NOW AVAILABLE TO VIEW ONLINE:

For more information: www.deadgoodfilm.com and follow on twitter @DeadGoodFilm

 

 

The funeral of a loved one is an important, meaningful event in anyone’s life. Being able to help carry the body of the person who has died is an honour for a lot of people. For some it’s the last thing that you can practically do for someone. Doing it safely is obviously important, to ensure that things go well. Here is our advice and approach for people to consider and to give  confidence ahead of taking on this important role.

Coffins can be heavy though so when we are approaching this we need to keep people safe to ensure that no one gets injured and to ensure that the carrying of the coffin is a good memory and something that you can feel proud of.

We have some basic rules when we are approaching pallbearing, this is for professional pallbearers and family members alike.

Organise enough people to carry the coffin 

This will be based on weight of the person and coffin, some coffins weigh quite a lot on their own – some up to 30kgs so we need to ensure that we are aware of the potential risk.

Another consideration is distance, if the walk into a church is long, maybe the minister will walk slowly in front of the coffin then this needs to be considered.

Height and strength of the people carrying 

It’s totally acceptable for anyone who wants to, to carry a coffin. Traditionally this is the role of 4/6 men but in today’s world, women and children can perform this role as well. Again though we must think about the relative strength and confidence of each individual and of course not assume that just because someone is male and 6’ that they will have a certain amount of strength to offer. We must also consider any injuries that people may be carrying.

Process of organisation 

When organising who will carry and where we need to remember:

• The ‘head’ end of a coffin is usually heavier than the ‘foot’ end, so the stronger people would normally carry the head end.
• The coffin is normally carried in feet first, it will also be put in a car feet first.
• Some coffins have weightbearing handles, some don’t. If the coffin is a traditional (wood or wood veneered) then quite often the handles are plastic and won’t be weightbearing.
• A lot of our coffins have strong weightbearing handles (normally 6) so people can carry in hand which is slightly less daunting than carrying on shoulder.
• Another option is to use a bamboo stretcher to carry a coffin this is a good option if there are people of different heights and if the coffin doesn’t have weightbearing handles.
• If you do want to carry on shoulder then we have to plan this very carefully so that everybody lifts together, bring out of the car in hand and then raise onto shoulder together, we need to give instruction on where we will lift, how we will go back into hand before the coffin is placed on the catafalque (traditionally the platform that the coffin sits on at a crematorium) or onto trestles.

 

BURIALS 

When we are carrying the coffin to the grave, we adhere to the rules above but there are certain aspects of a burial that need to be highlighted and processes to be followed. Here are the main points to remember:

Process 

Normally the coffin is taken out of the car/hearse and carried to the grave (either on shoulder or in hand)

The coffin is placed on the ground over 2 or 3 strips of webbing (like seatbelt material which is used to lower the coffin)

The webbing is threaded through the handles of the coffin by the bearers.

The pallbearers carry the coffin using the webbing over the grave onto what are known as putlocks (the 2 bits of wood over the grave) when approaching a move we will normally count to three (so ‘1 2 3 lift’)

They will need to place the coffin in the middle of the grave so that it doesn’t catch the edge of the grave as it’s being lowered.

Quite often the coffin won’t be lowered until the ‘committal’ or final goodbye has been said but this is slightly different with all funerals.

The celebrant or minister will indicate that the coffin is to be lowered and the bearers will lift the coffin up a few inches with a firm grip, allowing someone (sometimes the funeral director) to remove the putlocks.

The pallbearers will then gently lower the coffin into the grave, going down steadily and evenly is the secret here. Important not to wrap the webbing around your hands, as tempting as that is.

Once the coffin is settled evenly at the bottom of the grave they will then leave the webbing by their feet, tradition dictates that pallbearers then bow to the person who has died but this can be discussed when the funeral is being arranged.

 

GENERAL RULES 

PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR FUNERAL DIRECTOR WHO WILL DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO ENSURE THAT THINGS GO SMOOTHLY AND WILL KEEP YOU SAFE.

DON’T DO ANYTHING UNTIL YOU FEEL CONFIDENT AND ARE SURE OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

WE WILL GO THROUGH EVERYTHING AGAIN BEFORE WE LIFT THE COFFIN SO DON’T WORRY – BE CONFIDENT

DON’T BE AFRAID TO SAY THAT YOU DON’T THINK YOU CAN MANAGE SOMETHING OR IF YOU HAVE ANY WORRIES AT ALL.