One look at them—the pain in their eyes, the way their hands shake—and I am reminded afresh of what loss feels like.
Grief—it wraps around
your heart, squeezing
the air out of your lungs.
The first few days you walk in a surreal fog. As you watch the shovels of dirt cover the casket, you feel as though a part of you is being buried in the ground with the deceased.
Four funerals. Four graves. Four family members ravished by disease and gone in just a few years.
Funerals are a steady part of life in my community. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t watched someone they love fight a losing battle for their life.
Death robs us.
The funerals of my family members left me bankrupt. And the reality for my family was that this wouldn’t be the last funeral we’d hold. Knowing that, I started researching how to make my own funeral arrangements.
I wasn’t the only one in my community left bankrupt from funeral costs. Every Saturday the graveyard fills with somber crowds clutching flowers and whispering their final good-byes.
So I used what I’d learned about funeral arrangements to start my own funeral business—I now help other families plan and prepare for these losses.
I know what my clients are facing.
I understand the haze of
grief and the helpless feeling
of losing someone you love.
We can’t escape death. My business can’t take away the pain and injustice of loss, but I hope that, in some small way, it can help the futures of the ones left behind.
How You Can Help
Donate today! Everything gets us closer to seeing this become a reality for a growing cadre of entrepreneurs. Live in Africa? Launch Paradigm Shift in your community.
If you haven’t received your free eBook of Resilience: Portraits of a New South Africa, go here to get your copy.