Oakdale Funerals

12/11/2025

We are very grateful to the Collingwood Football Club and sooooo many other organisations and people as we all work towards a fitting and special service for beautiful young Benny…💔

Collingwood has offered its 2023 premiership cup to be part of the memorial to Ben Austin, the teenage cricketer who died after a nets accident in Melbourne’s east. > https://bit.ly/4oCqTcy

06/10/2025

We are always pleased to support families in whatever faith or belief they hold dear. Religious, spiritual or otherwise ❤️
Here we are today at the beautiful old and serene church St John’s Anglican in Toorak 🙏

18/07/2025

We just loved these flowers for the wonderful man Laurie. Amazing BIG yellow roses amongst other delights! Thankyou to the dedicated talented team at Mordialloc Florist 🩷👏🌷

28/06/2025

It was a deeply moving ceremony at magnificent Montsalvat in Eltham on this chilly Saturday morning as we said farewell to John. Professor in Italian studies, adventurer, master of six languages, a lover of opera and the arts while remaining an ever so humble man. I find myself still immersed in his life as we heard the incredible voice of opera singer Rebecca with some of his favourite arias. Just one of the highlights of John’s ceremony. And how lucky I was to be gifted his vibrant memorial flowers.. A bit lost for words after today 🥰🩵🎵🌷

11/06/2025

It was truly special celebrating the life of 101yr old Agnes and the amazing life she lived.
She loved the color pink, flowers, champagne and was an elegant charismatic lady. And the story goes that she would have loved our hot rod hearse…especially with the 1931 year of his ‘birth’ being close to hers 👏😌
So very loved by her many nieces 🩷

02/06/2025

It’s always so nice when a lovely client family is thankful for one of our ideas… like this display of amazing quilts! Sooo many quilts made with love and given to family,friends and donated to charities ❤️
As I said in my ceremony… just to think of the hundreds of thousands of stitches Suzanne sewed and the special friends and places she sat with/in while sewing.. Amazing! And what a lasting legacy Suzanne leaves behind 💕🙏

01/04/2025

🤎💛🤍
The thing about grief is that other people tend to forget you’re doing it. Or they think that after a week or two, you should be over it.

But you and I know it doesn’t work that way, right?

We have to somehow strike a balance between the act of grieving, and our total lack of control over it, along with the will to continue living life and making plans.

But grief is a tricky thing. There’s an array of thoughts and emotions I continue to face in my grief that’s somehow invisible and unfamiliar to everyone else. So, I talk about it, and write about it, in order to shed a little light on the unseen and unknown.

The only people who can understand this are those of us who have experienced a tremendous loss.

How do you explain to people who have no idea what you’re experiencing that it’s been several months and you’re still crying yourself to sleep? That you’re always sad?

How do you show them what you had to witness with your own eyes, or explain to them why you still just want the person you love to come back?

Here’s the thing…you can’t!
It’s not just their death that we struggle with, it’s also the regret of all the things said and done during the time in which they were still alive. And it’s in all the things you can’t say or do now that they’re gone.

It’s not just about the last interaction you had with someone, it’s about all of it: the birthdays, the holidays, the hugs, the talks, the trips together. It’s about the lifetime of good memories.

When someone you love is taken from you suddenly, your brain has a way of doing whatever it does when you experience a traumatic event, it holds onto it tight, and constantly floods you with thoughts of it.

The unfortunate truth is that we’re all susceptible to grief, because we’re all able to love. The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief. And I think it’s worth it.

Maybe nothing’s ever really gone? I don’t know.
But what I do know is that I’m still trying to reconcile the fact that every day is just another day without my loved one in it.
And…that will never change.

By: Gary Sturgis - Surviving Grief 🤍

Artist: Federico Infante 🤍

18/03/2025

Our hearts were filled with gratitude and joy today as we said farewell to the charismatic ‘Fancy Nancy’ in this beautiful location in the heart of the Yarra Valley. The wee toast of sweet sherry we all made to Nancy as the hearse departed would have met with her approval. You were a special lady Nancy and we were honored to look after you 💜🩷❤️

06/03/2025

Death ends a life but only alters the relationship, moving it from one of presence to remembrance … 😔💜
Goodbye to Eric..my 96yr old Dad.
What a long amazing life ☺️

15/10/2024

We loved being back at The Gables in Malvern to celebrate the life of a treasured English lady. Getting to know Jacquie a little, I included a bit of history about The Gables. I think she would have loved it 💜
This grand mansion was built in 1902 and the story goes that beer was sold from the back door during the prohibition era. Many events were enjoyed in the days of the flappers, and in the 1920’s gangster Squizzy Taylor would attend raucous parties and head upstairs for a bit of gambling on the sly 🤭Imagine the stories these walls could tell!

05/09/2024

What do you say to someone who has just faced a huge loss and is grieving deeply 🤔
I notice a lot of chat around this subject and this morning saw a reel expressing that it’s ok to say nothing, absolutely nothing, as nothing will help 🤔
Even with our experience and frequently being in this position, we too find it difficult.
Just the other day I asked a man who suddenly lost his wife how he was and he returned a blank teary stare and I could read it all 😢😘 - ‘why are you asking me that?!’
I have a close bond with him previously helping with the death of his son. I apologised and was surprised these words slipped from my mouth. He replied, ‘it’s OK Anne, you are just being polite’

So many words seem trite..
‘Sending my condolences
Time heals all wounds
At least they are no longer in pain
She/he lived a good long life
Better to have had him/her than not at all
The funeral will help you move on’
And so many more….

All these words come from a good place and reminds me that being kind is the best approach. Most of us do our best 💜
So what do my readers think?

21/08/2024

A moving police honors service today for a treasured young man/police officer taken way too soon. So many broken hearts and so much love for his beautiful family. Fly high Elias
🩵💔🥲