Mobile phones at Funerals

When conducting a funeral service I always begin by asking people to check that their mobile phones are switch off.

Recently I had a very embarrassing situation occur. We were ten minutes into our 20 minute slot when suddenly loud, jingling music filled the chapel. Thinking it was the Wesley system gone crazy I pressed the ‘diminish sound button’ but it still took a while for the noise to stop. I carried on with the service and pressed the play button for the next hymn and again nothing happened! To my total embarrassment I found myself whipping past the coffin into an anti-room and yelling ‘music please.’ Thankfully someone heard me and the next hymn played. The final piece of music also refused to play so I went hot footing back (soooo embarrassing) behind the scenes to plead yet again for ‘music.’ Afterwards I apologised profusely and shared my embarrassment with the FD who said he was sitting in the back row and the untimely burst of music was someone playing with their mobile phone. The family were wonderful, I felt so grateful to them, thy hugged me and said: ‘John would have loved it.’ How generous of heart were they?

What sad times we live in if someone can’t even just for twenty minutes focus on the reason they are where they are and the person whose life is being celebrated.