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Trans_Funerals_Layout 1 18-03-16 12:23 PM Page 1

Story by Ian Froese
Photos by Tim Smith

avid Westfall didn’t want a traditional funeral Today, personal touches permeate our funerals.
steeped in religious pageantry. He preferred a At Memories, they’ve rolled a golf cart into a chapel and
Dsimple reception with a menu uniquely his own. celebrated the life of someone’s pet dog, Buchanan said.
“People got a kick out of the fact that his refreshments They strapped a casket onto a semi’s flatbed trailer. For
were a big bowl of Tostitos chips, because that was his a farmer, they decorated a service with bales of hay,
staple,” said his daughter, Milena King. cowboy boots and a pitchfork.
Paired with The Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie from Jokes from the deceased himself were played on
President’s Choice, guests at Westfall’s reception were cassette tape at one service. He pre-planned his own
treated to his diet — for an afternoon, at least. It was funeral, Buchanan remembered, so the man would,
essentially all he ate; he barely cooked, King remembers. literally, have a say.
“I’d bring him food and he would never eat it.” Kelly Lumbard, co-owner at Brockie Donovan Funeral
In near-every facet, Westfall’s reception eulogized the Home in Brandon a remembers their chapel being
life of the former university educator and accomplished turned into a garden, a graveside picnic rather than a
linguist. The Brandonite died in January at the age of 75. conventional reception and their staff donning Santa
They ate his food. They played his favourite music, like hats for a man who, around Christmas, judged the
Patsy Cline and Marlene Dietrich. They showed off his naughty from nice.
hats. “People, they want to celebrate the life they had with
“It wasn’t sad at all,” King said of the come and go their loved one,” Lumbard said. “It’s not a day in a
reception. lifetime, a funeral is a lifetime in a day. They want to
“We all had a chance to just sit down around and visit celebrate all that there is about that person, all the joy
as opposed to listen to people give speeches and that they brought into people’s lives, and the funny
sermons.” times.”
Westfall’s family isn’t the only one doing death Most personalization aspects are talked over with
differently. The traditional funeral, often draped in family, but sometimes it’s a surprise.
Christian platitudes, is on its deathbed. Religious rites Brockie Donovan recently held a service for a
like the singing of hymns and a minister preaching are gentleman who met his wife in the freezer of a meat
no longer in vogue. packing plant. She was putting away garlic sausage.
The focus is on memorializing the individual. A funeral “The funeral director went out and bought some garlic
service, if it exists at all, is seen as a tribute to the sausage and had it specifically cut up for the luncheon,”
individual who died. Lumbard said. “It meant a lot to the wife.”
Southwestern Manitoba is not immune to the evolving ———
nature in ways we commemorate the dead. Over a meal in Pilot Mound, guests discussed a burial
“Our profession has changed dramatically in the last few suit infused with mushroom spores so it will digest your
years; it’s a different marketplace,” said Brent Buchanan, body after you die.
who co-founded Memories Chapel, which opened in “They were ready when they came in the door, knowing
Brandon in 1999. the possibility that they could talk about a mushroom
“Funeral homes have had to catch up with where society suit,” said Pamela Cavers, chuckling at the video she had
is at. We’ve had to sit down and go, ‘Look, what is it that her guests watch before attending her Death over
people really want from us?’” Dinner gathering.

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