1. Why it is important to plan
It doesn’t need to be complicated. A conversation over a cup of tea. A few notes written down. Sharing your wishes openly.
By Eve Gibbons, Business Leader, (Cemetery Manager) Carr Villa Memorial Park
When people discover what I do for a living, the response is often curiosity, sometimes surprise. As the Business Leader (Cemetery Manager) at Carr Villa Memorial Park and as a former Funeral Director, I have had the privilege of walking alongside families during some of life’s most vulnerable moments.
One thing I have learned over the years is this: planning matters. Not because we want to focus on death, but because we care about the people we leave behind.
I have sat with families who were unsure whether their loved one would have preferred burial or cremation. I have heard the quiet uncertainty about what should happen with ashes, should they be scattered, kept at home, or placed somewhere permanent within the cemetery? In those moments, grief is already heavy. Not knowing what someone truly wanted can make it heavier still.
Planning ahead is not about being morbid. It is about clarity. It is about kindness. It is about lifting a future burden from the shoulders of the people you love most.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. A conversation over a cup of tea. A few notes written down. Sharing your wishes openly.
At Carr Villa, we are seeing more people embrace planning as an act of love, one that brings peace of mind long before it is ever needed.
If there is one piece of advice I would gently offer, it is this: talk about it before you have to.
Because planning isn’t about the end of life, it’s about caring for the ones who remain.
This is week one of Carr Villa's ten-part blog series by Eve Gibbons, Business Leader at Carr Villa Memorial Park. Each weekly blog will be published on the News and Information page under the Industry News and Resources section