Caring Angel’s funeral director Amanda Amos, discovered that people find themselves emotionally lost, not just at the funeral but in the weeks and months afterwards.
She also found there are people who cannot afford all the frills of a fancy funeral to farewell their loved ones.
Consequently, she came up with a novel idea to keep grieving family members busy and make funerals more affordable.
By asking her crew of volunteers to get busy knitting or crocheting colourful flowers which will be sewn together to make a beautiful coffin cover, she was able to satisfy the emotional needs of both groups of people.
“I’ve said to them, right – get going on these. So rather than sitting there at home thinking what can I do, they can get on with something,” she said.
“I think people like to be involved and needed. To be able to say, ‘I helped with that’. Something bigger than themselves, that the community can be a part of,” she said.
(Above) What the finished product will look similar to.
The project has struck a chord with people who’ve sent flowers from all around the world.
“We’ve had them arrive from England Cyprus, Wales, France, New Zealand and Scotland,” she said.
The idea came when a friend tagged her on a Facebook post.
There was a young girl in England who loved to crochet, so the family got everyone who knew her to make a flower. They were glued to the coffin and it went down with her.
“I wanted to recreate it but to make a carriage cover that we could reuse and will stay in the business for years to come. I think it will mainly be for ladies and it enables me to sell the cheaper coffins,” she said.
“If a family doesn’t have a lot of money we can use a cheap coffin and cover it in this beautiful cover.”
In times of grief, it is often the small things that make a big difference.
“When we take somebody into care from the hospital or nursing home, as soon as we get back and I tuck them away in the fridge, I send a text to say ‘I’ve got Mum and she’s safely tucked away’.
“People don’t know where they are. So they are not left wondering,” she said.
If you would like to donate some knitted or croqueted flowers, you can send them to PO Box 2123, North Ipswich. You can contact Amanda on 5460 9495.
“I’d like to have it completed by Christmas. We’ve probably need about 800 and we’ve got about 600,” she said.
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