Braidwood Evening VIEW Club

Hello and welcome to Braidwood Evening VIEW club June newsletter.

Our members gathered this month with the definite hint of winter in the evening air; however, the Braidwood Services Club provided a lovely warm atmosphere for us all to enjoy a tasty meal, good company and an interesting guest speaker.

Business matters were addressed without incident and this month it included a warm note of remembrance and appreciation for our dearly departed member Mrs. Olive Royds.

Mrs. Royds joined the Braidwood Evening VIEW Club on 16 May 2002 and regularly came along to our meetings. She enjoyed making conversation with those seated around her and shared wonderful warm and interesting stories about her long life that led to marriage and a family home in Braidwood. Olives stories were always a delight to hear. The consensus among women in the meeting was the love of her witty, dry sense of humor.

Gaye introduced this month’s guest speaker, Sarah Leheny an interesting local lady who is member of the team operating Tender Funerals. This is a community funeral home in Fairburn ACT which provides a service to Canberra and the surrounding districts, including Braidwood.

Sarah spoke of the often-difficult topic – death and what to do when someone dies. It’s often not spoken about. Plans regarding burial / cremation are not made known, Wills are not drawn up and at a time when grief hinders our thoughts it can be very overwhelming.

For some, a funeral is all about being practical and organized while for others it’s about creating something meaningful and authentic.

This somewhat new model funeral service was first thought about back in 2008 and now has Community funeral homes scattered around Australia.

Sarah spoke of the range of options available to empower families to make choices including providing a beautiful environment for vigils and gatherings; washing and dressing of the deceased and of providing this service to all faiths and culture at -cost. Any coffin of choice can be acquired starting with $150 cardboard coffins through to more traditional coffins.

Thank you, Sarah, for this very interesting and enlightening talk about the services provided by Tender Funerals. I, for one, had no idea this service was available and the choices available are endless.

Congratulations to Vicki on winning the lucky door prize drawn by Sarah.

A reminder that our Evening VIEW club provides women from all walks of life a chance to join a supportive, social and fun group. Come along, we’d love to meet you. Braidwood Evening VIEW Club meets at 6.45pm on the first Thursday of the month at the Braidwood Services Club.  

For further information, please give our President Judy Hobson a call on 0410688273.                                                                                      

Until next month: …. Look out for each other.