About Me
My name is Susan Wood I live with my partner of
several years, I have two daughters and two step sons all grown up and
following their own chosen paths in life. My daughters have given me between
them four beautiful grandchildren and I am sure there will be more to come in
the future. Family and friends are the
most important thing in my life, and I class my closest friends as family also.
Spending time with my family and friends is my favourite thing to do
All of my career choices have involved caring for
other people in some way. I trained as a Nursery Nurse and have been a nanny
for two different families’ one of which became very important to me. A little
girl whose mum sadly passed away, she and her dad have become an integral part
of my family and she and my daughters consider themselves to be unconventional
sister as they were brought up side by side for several years.
I have worked in a children’s nursery, in hospitals
across the North West as a nurse trainer and with people who have gender
dysphoria, offering support to both themselves and their family through some
difficult times and tough decisions.
I was a volunteer for the Samaritans for many years
working on the telephones and in person providing a listening ear to people who
had a whole host of issues and problems to deal with. Sometimes this could be
very challenging and occasionally distressing but mostly it was very rewarding.
Some years ago I had quite a scare when the doctors
thought I might have a brain tumour. As a family we talked about what would
happen if the news was bad. We discussed what sort of funeral I would like
making us cry and laugh together. It was very important to me that although I
knew it would be a sad time there would also be laughter and that the focus was
on the life I had lived. Fortunately the
news was good but it had a massive effect on me. It made me realise that we do
not know what the future holds or how long the future we have will be.
Immediately as a family we started to change the way we lived our life
and started working to make our future dreams a reality now.
I had been looking for a new direction in my life
something that would give me a sense of fulfillment. Then I attended the funeral
of a friend’s mother which was led by a celebrant; it was so lovely, so
personal and poignant and exactly the kind of funeral I would like myself. It
was a ‘Celebration of Life’ and I then that this was the something I had been
looking for and what I wanted to do.
I look forward to being able to work alongside
people helping them achieve ‘The Ceremony’ that is uniquely theirs and reflects
their personality and personal requirements no matter what the occasion.
