<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><img class="wp-image-145 size-medium alignleft" src="https://margolaberge.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ML-Logo-Newest.001-300x225.png" alt="" width="300" height="225" /><em><strong>Don’t you love arriving at just the right place without knowing it was where you were headed?</strong></em></span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Becoming a Funeral Celebrant is not something I could have predicted – but it turns out to be the</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">perfect expression of my own life story.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Before settling in Edmonton, I grew up in Legal, Alberta.   I always knew that I wanted to be of</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">service to others. I was involved in many aspects of the community as a young person and adult. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I have worked in different sectors of health and have always enjoyed meeting people in all walks</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">of life.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">A few years ago out of the blue, I had a thought that I should look in to the possibility of</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">becoming a Celebrant. After some online research I enrolled in a Funeral Celebrant</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">course from the In-Sight Institute that was being held in Calgary, a program widely recognized</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">by Funeral Directors. After the first hour of lectures I knew in my heart that is what I was meant</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">to be doing and have not looked back as I have found my calling and am truly grateful.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I experienced a lot of grief in my own life having lost close friends in a car accident in my teens,</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">my younger sister and dad from cancer, my brother in law recently from a sudden heart attack</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">and other family members and friends. I have walked down that deep dark valley of grief. My</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">own life experience and circumstances have paved the way to this profession where I can now be</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">of support to others. The purpose in my life now is to help families start the process of healing</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">and to create a meaningful service.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I have always enjoyed meeting and connecting with people. Being a Celebrant has allowed me to</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">share compassion and empathy. It has made me realize that we all have a story and each life</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">story matters. I can share your loved ones story in either English or French.  My responsibility is to make the deceased person’s farewell one that is</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">meaningful and purposeful for those that are left behind as they share memories. Funeral</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ceremonies create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of grief or trauma, and</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">we share that with others who are in attendance. A Celebration of Life is not a day in a lifetime,</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">it is a lifetime in a day.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Robert Stolorow says it well in these words: “Grief that is dismissed, suppressed, or silenced</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">harms individuals, families, and communities.” A good Celebration of Life/Funeral/Memorial</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">does the opposite of suppressing…it brings those emotions to the surface and honors them.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I have found this to be so true in all kinds of difficult situations in my role as a Celebrant and</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">when I worked as a College Chaplain in New Zealand where my family and I lived for ten years. </span>

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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Grief I’ve learned is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat and in the hollow</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">– Jamie Anderson.</span>