George Hulme Funeral Celebrant

04/05/2026

Grief can feel incredibly lonely, but connection can gently change that.

Tomorrow evening we hope to see you at our new Location in Newington Care Court Home, Keycol Hill, Sittingbourne, ME9 7LG.

Our support circle is a space where you can:
✨ Be heard without judgement
✨ Share (or simply sit quietly)
✨ Connect with others who understand

With a new location starting tonight in
Newington Care Court home,
Keycol Hill,
Newington
Sittingbourne,
ME9 7LG
we are opening our doors to even more of our community.

Held with care. Open to all. FREE to attend.

This is not a counselling service and you must be over 18 to attend.

We’re here when you’re ready.

Warmly,
Debbie Jane Clay and Clare Cavalli
Piece Of Wellness- CIC - Community Interest Company

02/05/2026

The families I remember most are not the ones who had everything perfectly planned.
They’re the ones who, in the middle of their grief, found one true thing to say about the person they loved.

Not a polished tribute or a carefully crafted summary of a life well lived.
Just one sentence that was completely and irreplaceably theirs.
“He always knew when I needed him before I did.”
“She laughed at her own jokes before she’d even finished telling them.”
“He said sorry by making you a cup of tea.”

That’s what a funeral is for.
Not perfection and not a performance.

One true thing, spoken aloud, in a room full of people who loved the same person.

If you are planning a service for someone right now and you don’t know where to begin, start there. Don’t think about the order of service. Don’t worry about whether you’ve chosen the right music or the right words.
Just ask yourself: what is the one true thing I would want people to know about them?
Everything else can follow from that.

28/04/2026

When words fail, music speaks.
If you are planning a funeral and you don’t know where to begin, start here.
Not with the order of service or the readings, and not even with what you’re going to say.
Start with the music.

Because music does something that nothing else in a funeral service can do. It reaches the people in that room who have shut down, who are holding themselves together so tightly that words are simply sliding off them. And it opens something up.
A familiar song can bring a person back to a moment in time. A piece of music your loved one always played on a Sunday morning. The song that was on the radio the first time you danced together. The hymn they sang at their own parents’ funeral, decades ago.

These are not small things. They are the thread that connects everyone in that room to the same person, the same love, and the same loss.

There are no rules about what music is right for a funeral. I have heard football anthems bring a crematorium to its feet. I have heard a simple folk song reduce a room to silence. I have heard a child’s favourite lullaby played for a grandmother who used to sing it, and watched a hundred people weep together in the most healing way.

The right music is whatever was truly theirs.
So if you are sitting with this question right now, if you are trying to work out what to choose, here is the only guidance that matters:
What did they love?
What would make the people who knew them smile, or cry, or feel for one moment that the person they lost was somehow present in the room?
Start there. Everything else can follow.

If you are a funeral director supporting a family through this process, feel free to share this with them. And if you’d like to talk through how I work with families on music and the wider shape of a service, I’m always pleased to connect.

🌐 georgehulme.uk

21/04/2026

Someone asked me recently whether I was “really” a funeral celebrant, given that I’m also a Licensed Lay Minister.
It’s a fair question.

The assumption behind it is understandable, that a person with Christian formation will somehow impose that on every family they serve. That faith will creep in where it isn’t wanted. That a bereaved family who doesn’t share my beliefs might feel uncomfortable, or worse, preached at.

I want to address that honestly.
When I sit down with a family, my job is not to bring my beliefs into the room. It’s to bring their loved one into the room. Everything else follows from that.

If a family is rooted in Christian faith, if they want scripture, prayer, a commendation to God, the familiar language of resurrection and hope, I can hold that with genuine understanding and conviction. It isn’t a performance. It comes from somewhere real.

If a family holds a quieter, more personal spirituality, if they want something that acknowledges mystery and meaning without doctrine, I can hold that too. With equal care and equal honesty.

And if a family wants a ceremony that makes no religious claim at all, if what matters to them is simply that their person is honoured truthfully, with good language and genuine warmth, that is exactly what I will write.

What never changes is this: my full attention, my best craft, and my complete respect for what that family believes.

A funeral is not about me. It is about the person who has died, and the people who loved them.
That is where I begin. Every time.

I’m George Hulme — funeral celebrant and Licensed Lay Minister serving families across Kent.

🌐 georgehulme.uk

16/04/2026

Great news.

WE HAVE SOME WONDERFUL NEWS TO SHARE!

Warm wishes,
Clare Cavalli and Debbie Jane Clay
Piece Of Wellness- CIC - Community Interest Company

23/03/2026

Grief Support Circle at The Blacksmith's Barn, Bredhurst...

Grief often asks for space. Space to speak, space to cry, space to simply sit with what is.

Our grief circle offers a compassionate space where every story and every silence is welcome.

You don’t have to explain your grief here. Just bring yourself.

Held on a Tuesday evening 6.45pm - 7.45pm. Please arrive 10 minutes before we are due to start, so you can settle in.

£5 entrance fee. You must be over 18 to attend. This is not a counselling service.

Circle gathering dates:

24th March
14th and 28th April
5th and 19th May
16th and 30th June
7th and 21st July
15th and 29th Sept
13th and 27th Oct
10th and 24th Nov
1st and 15th Dec

Warmly,
Clare Cavalli and Debbie Jane Clay
Piece Of Wellness- CIC - Community Interest Company

11/03/2026