Hi, I'm Kath ...
Thank you for taking the time to get to know a little bit about me. The short story is I’m a mum of 4 and a full-time celebrant in the Byron Bay and Ballina shires. I grew up on the far north coast and returned here in 2005 to raise my family. I have been a celebrant since 2011, I absolutely love what I do and I always feel so honoured to work with families during such a difficult time in their life.
One of the first questions people ask me is why I became a funeral celebrant, and the truth is, because I am passionate about creating authentic, personal and beautiful funerals for people. I want to help others who have lost loved ones, in the same way I was helped many years ago, offering them the love, support and the choices that I was offered, in order to create a funeral that is perfect for them.
In 2008, my world changed forever. I lost my fourth child; a little girl that we named Jessica. She was born sleeping at 22 weeks. I was broken into so many pieces, and had no idea where to even begin when it came to organising her funeral. How do you sit down and plan a funeral when you are grieving for your child so intensely? To be honest, it was probably the hardest thing I have ever done, but what I learnt from that experience is that if you can find the right people and allow them to help and guide you, that there is such a thing as a ‘beautiful funeral’.
I began by contacting a local celebrant and whilst she was unavailable at the time, she pointed me in the direction of some amazing people who guided me, held me, and supported me, and I am forever grateful for this. It wasn’t easy, but together we created a ceremony for my daughter that was heartfelt, personal and beautiful. I was surrounded by such love and compassion, and I was given choices that had not been offered to me elsewhere. Emotionally, I was completely shattered, but at the same time I felt empowered to be able to give my daughter a ceremony and farewell that she deserved.
We acknowledged, grieved and celebrated her little life in a way that was real and authentic for me and my family, and it sewed the seed for this beautiful career change.
To be able to be with people in their grief, in a space of understanding and compassion, and to gently guide them through this difficult time, just as I was, is the beautiful ripple effect that my little girl leaves in this world.
Since that time I went on to complete my celebrant training with Australian Celebrations and I have continued to learn and grow in this area, completing my “Funeral Ceremony Master Class” and “Deathwalker” accreditations with The Natural Death Care Centre, under the beautiful guidance and wisdom of Zenith Virago. And I continue to learn, with every funeral that I am privileged to be a part of, working with families, guiding and being guided, as together we break down the old paradigms and bring the heart and soul back into the funeral space to truly honour the life of the person we have lost.
We can never fill the gap that is left when we lose someone we love, but we can farewell them and celebrate their life in a way that is meaningful for us. We only get one chance at goodbye, and so my motto with all my funerals is “no regrets’. I encourage you to do and say what ever you need to, in order to get what you need from this final rite of passage. And if we do that, if we leave it all there, on the table, knowing that you have no regrets around what that goodbye looked like, it can make the journey of healing just that little bit easier.
To discuss an upcoming funeral or memorial ceremony please send me a message via my “Contact Me” page and I will get back to you as soon as I can.