Why wait for Easter to enjoy hot cross buns, say the big supermarket chains. Have them now. Indulge yourself all the way from January to March or April – whenever Easter happens to be commemorated on the calendar. For some people they adopt a similar approach to their funeral. Why wait until they’re dead for all those accolades. Why wait for a wake. Do it while you are still awake and upright.

This is a story about the wake you have when you’re not having a wake. Sounds rather confusing, but then tradition is getting a bit of a shake up these days. People are not conforming to the ‘rules’. While this is not common and some people would be horrified at the idea, others look at the same looming situation and say, let’s get on with on it, let’s not be in denial about what’s going on, let’s face up to reality and embrace the end-of-life experience full on. Facing up to the cold hard facts that time is running out is not on their radar. So, why wait seems like a logical extension of this thinking.

Imogen Dewey in: ‘I knew I was going to die … why not get together beforehand and have a beautiful party?’ (The Guardian, 25 Nov 2023) reports that: Facing terminal cancer, Annie Werner realised she didn’t want people saying ‘super nice’ things about her after she had died. She wanted to be there – so she held a living wake.

Full story here.