Kirstie Celebrant

07/03/2026

Hey you, 'member when we used to feel that hope was easy? Hadn't realised how much I'd missed this ledge .......

Sharing this not as an antidote to the hateful ramblings of the orange-self-monger (although that's a side bonus) more as an inspiration of what funeral content can be, with a bit of imagination.

When I meet a family and they apologise for not knowing the name of their mum's infant school or the street their dad was born on, I always gently remind them that no one at the funeral will give a flying fig that this information is missing.

In our replacing religious funerals with secular ones, we've aped the eulogies of the past.
We didn't need to.

In a traditional religious funeral, the eulogy (the part intended to focus on the individual life) only warranted being this factual life story as all the other broader, wider, more awesome themes were taken care of by the vicar or the priest.

We've lugged this limitation with us into the modern secular funerals of today and we'd find funerals so much more fulfilling if we were able to let this go.

A funeral is about feeling. A chronological life story filled with facts, charting events as though ticking them off a list, fails to bring life and light to the life which has ended.

The funeral of the Reverend Jesse Jackson was clearly not a secular event (bit of a clue in his title) but was clearly an event filled with passion and hope and rage for change ....... if these are some of the last words we'd use to describe the content of a funeral it would serve us well to question why.

So, am I saying that a funeral is an opportunity for grandstanding our own political beliefs? Absolutely not. Absolutely never.

Simply, I'm saying that a funeral is a space for truth. For the expression of feelings whatever they are. A space for honesty.
It's the only way we maximise the healing.

I'm sending love, as always, to you (and of course, as always, to Barack and Michelle 😍) xx

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BBJdSskoV/

25/02/2026

Actively looking for glimmers in life, episode 736,492 ...

So I'm ironing my shirt in the kitchen being low-level bugged by a faint squeaking noise.

I'm musing to myself that it sounds like if my dog were crying for help but doing so in a very muted, polite way (v much not his style).

Eventually I find the source.

The poor lad. Too polite or (more likely) too terrified to try to get past the killer queen of the house.

Name a cat Marlene Dietrich and take the consequences.

Wishing you a day of spotting glimmers too.

Sending love and tiny squeaks from me and Bing and Lena x

25/02/2026

Actively looking for glimmers in life, episode 736,492 ...

So I'm ironing my shirt in the kitchen being low-level bugged by a faint squeaking noise.

I'm musing to myself that it sounds like if my dog were crying for help but doing so in a very muted, polite way (v much not his style).

Eventually I find the source.

The poor lad. Too polite or (more likely) too terrified to try to get past the killer queen of the house.

Name a cat Marlene Dietrich and take the consequences.

Wishing you a day of spotting glimmers too.

Sending love and tiny squeaks from me and Bing and Lena x

17/02/2026

Am I.......

Being visited by the actual grim reaper

or

Working alongside a cold teenager?

If I send love will you send central heating? xx

14/02/2026

Hello all tis the day of love (surely that's every day, no?)

Looking for an alternative gift to show yourself how loved you are by you, or for someone else who's lovely?

A ticket to our anticipatory grief workshop is a total must for anyone who's close to someone with dementia, a diagnosis they'll not survive or someone reaching the end of their life.

We've gone all corporate (imagine 🤣?) so we're now booking tickets via Eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/safe-space-for-the-pre-grievers-therapeutic-workshop-tickets-1982347366336

HOWEVER... since it's you, someone who's been on the Kirstie Celebrant journey with me ....... if you're unsure about using Eventbrite (promise it's easy, even I can do it) you can message me for tickets coz I love you most.

At Dead Positive we're entirely open to suggestions of events you'd find helpful ... we do in fact have one tomorrow (Sun 15th) ... you'll find current events listed on Eventbrite.

Please share far and wide as always.

Would love to welcome you into DPHQ officially the cosiest place in Widnes (source: my little sister, Hannah 🤣)

31/01/2026

Hey all ....... Catherine O'Hara though. What a bloody legend.

Taking the opportunity to talk to you all about Disenfranchised Grief.

We're often really impacted by a death that we seemingly have no connection to. Ten years ago I was hanging out washing when my lovely brother Delme Herriman (more often referred to as Our Heather) text me about Victoria Wood's death. I cried my leg off.
Did I know her? No.
Had she impacted my life. Yes.
Every single day since the mid 80s when me, our mum and Our Heather used to be utterly helpless watching rerun after rerun of As Seen on TV.
Me and Our Heather eventually word perfect on all of our favourite sketches.
Hence Our Heather ... "I wanted Shreddies" IYKYK.

We are allowed to feel grief about anything that makes us grieve.

By expressing our grief, we are not belittling the grief of those who were physically close to the person.

It's ok to grieve anything that's lost ....... an object we felt connected to, a situation we imagined might last forever.......

If you're ever tempted to judge the grief of others (and most of us are at some point) it's always worth asking yourself why. Being kind to them is being kind to you too.

My recommendation for today is Home Alone "polka, polka, polka" followed by a Schitt's Creek marathon.

As Moira Rose would have said "Our lives are like little bebe crows, carried on a curious wind"

Sending love xx

27/01/2026

How to improve your already lovely workplace...

Install an Elkie 🥰

26/01/2026

"The central, foundational, spinal thing of life."

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19Gi1cgDnB/

18/01/2026

Good morning loveliest phone creatures.

Feels like an unpredictable life at the moment, doesn't it?
An unpredictable life in an unpredictable world.

And the less predictable life becomes the more convinced I become that the only way to cope with that is to lean in to the unpredictability.

There's that old adage, if you want to make God laugh show him your plans. I don't believe there is a God. But it still rings true to me. Perhaps all we can have is intention and the listening skills to be able to adapt as the world tells us what it's doing.

It's 5 years now since I began training to be a celebrant. I knew then, as I know now, that this was the thing I needed to be. It was who I was on the inside.

As I stood before my first group of mourners ready to hold the space they were in so that they could do what they needed to do, I knew in my cells that there was nowhere else I could have been.

It's the movements and the shifts of the world around me that's landed me here though, 5 years later, the proprietor of 2 businesses, a woman with a literal shopfront. It's not something I ever set out to do. But it is who I am on the inside there is nowhere else I could be.

So, here's the sitch ....

I am still Kirstie Celebrant I still support, work with and care for people who want to create a ceremony.

I do this for all sorts of people in all sorts of ways.

I am also Founder and Director of the Revolution at Dead Positive.

This means that (when not out being Kirstie Celebrant or working in the community) you will now find me in our gorgeous space.

We are building this space as a beacon.

So that when loss of any form upends your life you know there's a space to come to.

A space where we just completely get it.

Here we're housing our community events, our bereavement cafes, our grief space, our workshops, our memorials.

Here we're able to answer questions, offer advice, give honest and impartial suggestions or recommendations.

Here we're able to hold your hand as you navigate the shift in your life. As you begin to face a chapter you never planned for or wanted.

We're here from anticipation, through preparation and all throughout the grief journey.

I never planned that this is where I would be, but as external events crashed and clashed around me, I remembered who I am, what I need to do, how I can make things better and I'm so, so grateful to have landed here.

Come and see us whenever you like. This week I'll be there Monday afternoon, all Tuesday and all Thursday at the very least.

The kettle's always on.
We have biscuits, hugs and a warm welcome.
We don't believe in daft questions.

You'll find us at 202 Warrington Road WA8 0AX.

You can't miss us. We've made the word Dead as big as we possibly could and we've a disco ball ghost in the window. You'd expect no different, would you?

Our frontage is still a work in progress, but then nothing in life is perfect except for our intentions.

Sending love as always x

ps if you'd be so kind as to share this post with the wider world, disco ball ghost will grant you an outrageously entertaining dream tonight.

pps that last bit wasn't true, don't want you thinking this is one of those chain messages that did the rounds back in the day, I was just messing.

ppps I would be sparklingly grateful though x

13/01/2026

Cat's out the bag!
Guinea pigs are out the cage!
Hampsters are wheely excited! (sincere apologies 🫣)

Yes we have been harbouring a little secret....
We now have a DPHQ!! (name credit to our beloved Mykie Leong Chadwick)

Not quite finished and deffo not a pet shop (although Bing did come to say hello this evening).
Far too impatient to wait and held our first bereavement cafe here this evening... it was such a moment for us to have so many people come into this space of love.
We cannot wait to welcome you all in xx

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1ZGoCP4jKW/

08/01/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AiLzRVTVU/

Fell into conversation with a woman of Wimbledon who told me she’d taken a six year old to see Paddington the Musical at the Savoy.

Towards the end, the little bear has a speech recommending people learn to love each other, which he had found to be much better and rewarding than being horrible to each other.

When he finished, the six year old stood up in her row in the upper circle and shouted “Well said, Paddington!” and the whole theatre broke into applause.

Vive la Résistance!

05/01/2026

Hello. It's me.
Cutting myself off in my prime here to demonstrate how I've brought my high quality of editing and tech skills into the new year with me.
How gorgeous is this morning?
How cold are my toes after this morning's funeral?
How are you all?

Sending love xx