Originally, I thought it was another ordinary funeral service, but ended up I was requested by the customer to become a temporary “god-daughter” to complete the entire funeral ceremony on behalf of the family members.

One evening in April this year, when I received a call from the customer, I immediately rushed to the customer’s landed property to explain the details of the funeral arrangements. The deceased was the customer’s mother, but for some reason the family members were not able to attend or handle the funeral ceremony. The customer requested me to be a temporary “god daughter” to complete the entire funeral ceremony on behalf.

This is a two-days Buddhist funeral package. As a temporary “god-daughter”, I needed to take care of the entire process on behalf of the family members that includes: funeral wake decoration, funeral ceremony, cremation, bone collection, urn interment and follow-up prayer services.

That night, I needed to go to the police station with the death certificate of the deceased to register the death record (death certificates could be registered online started from July this year). The next morning, after finishing the funeral wake setup, I went to Nirvana Memorial Garden to help the family member to choose a suitable columbarium niche. After completing the selection and purchase of the niche, I immediately rushed to the funeral wake to complete the funeral ritual.

In that afternoon, I completed the funeral process and led the hearse to send off the deceased at the last journey by myself. After that, we went to Mandai crematorium to perform the cremation process. By that time it was done, it was already evening. I brought along the incense burner and deceased’s photo to Nirvana Memorial Garden to perform the process of An-Ling (安灵). It was about 8pm in the evening when the process was finished.

The next morning, I went to Mandai crematorium with the staff of Nirvana Singapore to complete the bone picking process. Afterwards, the urn with the ashes were brought back to Nirvana to complete the ceremony of urn interment. 

Even though I was not aware of the reason why the family members were not be able to attend the ceremonies of both “funeral” and “burial” process, as a professional afterlife planner, I had sent off the last journey of deceased with dignity and respect. May the deceased rest in peace in Nirvana Memorial Garden forever.