Episode 4 A Very Welsh Undertaking

It's the last thing we want think about - our funeral.

But we all have very different thoughts about the way we want to go.

When the sun sets on the ocean blue,

remember me as I will always remember you.

God bless, Mum.

For some people though, death is very much their way of life.

And they love their work.

We care for the dead, but we are there to help the families

and I can't imagine a more rewarding job.

Welcome to a world that most of us will never see.

We are opening the doors on a very Welsh undertaking.

Lewis Funeral Services are based in Penrhiwpal,

a small rural village just to the north of Newcastle Emlyn,

and is owned by Maldwyn Lewis and his wife, Reverend Carys Ann.

And they met in a rather in usual way.

I saw him across a grave!

And we said let's meet up and that was it.

And we've hit it off great.

Each funeral is individual.

Different families have got different ideas

about their own funeral.

We've had this recent request from a family who wanted a lorry

to carry their father from his home to the funeral service.

So Maldwyn has enlisted the services

of a 1950 Leyland Beaver lorry, cum hearse,

owned and driven by David Hall.

This is a former lorry driver who was 80 years old

and we are taking him from his house into chapel

and he's being buried outside the chapel.

When I first started,

it was basically lorry drivers who wanted to go out on a vehicle

similar to what their dad had driven in the early '50s.

But recently there has been a growth in the business.

More and more people are interested in me personalising the funeral.

My top speed on the road is 32mph.

However, during funerals, I travel along at 25mph.

This is the first time for the lorry to be down in this area at all,

so it will be interesting for us.

The family are saddened at the loss,

but they are also excited that they are getting their wish

that their father is going to be carried on this lorry.

Gwyn drove HGVs all his life

and loved tinkering with classic vehicles

and renovating his old tractors.

His friends and their classic cars have turned out

to accompany the old lorry on the way to the chapel.

Gone are the days where everybody went to church

and was buried in the local cemetery.

At the end of the day, we try our best to carry out

the deceased's wishes or the family's wishes.

Dressed in boiler suits,

Gwyn's friends carefully transport him into chapel.

Today has been different.

Fitting for Gwyn and I'm quite pleased myself.

People ask, you know, do you enjoy doing funerals?

I don't think enjoy is the right word to use.

We do our best for the families, and job satisfaction, yes.

It is a calling and I feel that, you know, we have done our bit today.

Gareth and Craig from Baglan Funeral Home have made the journey

to Birmingham to discover more about a brand-new service

that is offered to bereaved families.

The digital postmortem

is an alternative to the traditional method,

where the body of the deceased is cut open

to determine the cause of death.

The problem that we have now

is that we've got a two-week wait for a funeral.

Because the pathologist has to perform a postmortem,

all that data has to be sent to the coroner

and the whole process is getting slower and slower

because there are more postmortems taking place.

So if we could speed up that process,

that would be a giant step forward.

If a person hasn't been seen by a doctor within 14 days of their death,

then they must have a postmortem to determine the cause of death.

A legal requirement,

so the coroner can come to a satisfactory conclusion.

The new digital postmortem is a totally non-invasive way

of achieving the same result, but without a scalpel in sight.

This facility is only one of three in the UK.

This is a normal hospital scanner.

It's the way that it's used which is completely different.

In a hospital, they use a low level of radiation

to get the images they need because living tissue doesn't like X-rays.

It doesn't affect the deceased at all.

So Ruth here will wind this up to maximum power

and we can get details down to about 0.6 of a millimetre,

which is pretty fantastic image-wise.

We will go through into the control room and you can watch the process.

If the deceased is in a body bag,

the whole process can be done without actually opening it?

That's correct, yes. That is what's really good.

Obviously because it's a CT scanner using X-rays, the X-rays can pass through the body bag,

so there's no need to open the bag in any shape or form,

which makes it much safer, not only for myself,

but obviously for the funeral directors as well.

There is no risk of infection or anything else

that could be inside of the bag being a problem.

So this whole process has taken, what, 15 minutes?

-Approximately 15 minutes, yes.

-Amazing.

Once the body has been scanned,

special software converts the data into viewable 3D images,

making the job for the pathologist faster, cleaner and more accurate.

Gareth and Craig are shown a case study to demonstrate the system.

-So this is the spinal injury?

-It is, yes.

So the clinical team decided that he had multiple spinal fractures.

With my limited medical knowledge, even I can see that there.

Whereas, if it was on a postmortem table,

even a pathologist would maybe...

It could potentially be very difficult.

-Difficult to see what we are seeing there.

-Absolutely.

It could potentially actually involve the removal of the spine.

What do you think of that, Craig?

I think that is absolutely incredible, Gareth.

It was space-age, almost.

Yeah, but it's now. It's here.

Yes, and it's practical and it's here.

-I don't quite understand why it's not used more extensively.

-No.

Having seen it now, I want to tell everybody about it.

It's something we can offer the families, we hope, soon.

Yeah, of course.

James Tovey from Newport today has a magic funeral to officiate.

Salvation Army member, Viv, was better known for his tricks,

being a professional magician and a member of the Magic Circle.

His friends and magic colleagues have turned out

to offer their last respects.

So just at waste height first of all.

So you at the front can support underneath the other hand. Come round towards me.

There's a step up on to the pavement so mind that.

We'll just come round. Nice and square on the pavement.

Just walk slowly forward. Just follow me.

In Viv's passing, a little bit of magic disappears

and to mark this there's a special Magic Circle ceremony

in memory of the Viv's contribution to their profession.

So when a magician passes,

when his performance is over,

it is our tradition as fellow magicians to break his wand.

We do this as a clear symbol that he will perform magic no more.

I now break his wand.

Viv's performance is now complete.

Yet his true magic continues

in the hearts and memories of all of us who knew and loved him.

# God's love to me is wonderful

# My very steps are planned

# When mists of doubt encompass me

# I hold my Father's hand

# His love has banished every fear

# In freedom I rejoice

# And with my quickened ears I hear

# The music of His voice. #

I think it's important always to portray a calm image.

People often talk about the swan going serenely across the pond.

It looks calm on the outside,

but perhaps it is paddling like mad underneath.

But I do my best to be calm most of the time.

Just very slowly feed through your hands.

There is room this way, Bill, if you need to come this way.

Now we let him go in peace on the wing of a beautiful dove.

Wish him peace and eternal rest,

it was an honour to know one of God's best.

Cymer in the Afan Valley,

where 40 years ago Gareth Jenkins began his career as an undertaker.

Today, though, he's on a mission improbable, with his crowbar.

This is my original yard.

It was a builder's yard and we used to keep the funeral vehicles here as well.

When I moved to the new property, I locked it up.

First time I've been in here for ten years.

The padlock key is long lost.

Not a problem for a former builder.

She's still here.

After all those years.

This is the first hearse I believe that I actually bought.

I'm surprised how good it's looking really.

I think it was 1983 this was purchased.

It was second-hand then. Nearly new.

It never let me down.

It's just things moved on and we changed the fleet, modernised it.

There we are. Jones and Jenkins.

That was my grandfather and father and we were building contractors.

And undertakers, look. As a lot of people were in the valleys.

You can see how small the number was. Well, well, well.

Right, then.

ENGINE FAILS

No.

What did I expect?

From the place they used to keep the hearse

to where Gareth's grandfather started making the coffins back in 1948,

Gareth has happy, if unusual, childhood memories.

If it was school holidays, I was allowed to come up

in the middle of the night, which I thought was very exciting,

and make the coffin with my father and grandfather.

This is where I made my first one, as well.

I used to come up here and they used to boil the pitch.

You had to put it on for an hour or two.

The coffins were racked along here and they used up pour the pitch in.

I used to love doing that as a kid, if they let me.

Then they used to swish all the pitch around the corner

to seal the old coffins.

I used to think, I don't know if you remember blackjack sweets,

but it used to look and feel like it and I used to chew it,

and I'm sure chewing tar was not good for you!

My grandfather used to tell me that is how they made blackjacks

Today, most coffins are mass-produced

and the choice is never ending.

However, Tovey Brothers in Newport

have an individual and high-end offering.

One of the traditional things that we do

is still make our solid wood coffins,

which is very unusual, I believe.

Tony Roach has been hand-crafting bespoke oak coffins

in Tovey Brothers for 15 years.

As far as I know,

I am the only person in Wales still doing bespoke coffins.

These solid oaks, I probably only do one a week.

It is special.

It is a handmade coffin. It's made of American oak.

It takes Tony a whole day to make a coffin from start to finish

and costs around £800, depending on dimensions,

compared to a standard veneered mass-produced MDF coffin,

costing between £400 and £600.

Because it is a special coffin,

people seem to take more attention, you know, look at it a bit more

because it's something they have ordered especially, you know.

So I always like to make sure it's right, you know.

I feel it's important to maintain certain traditions,

but not only just for tradition's sake,

because also I believe it provides an excellent quality coffin

which families appreciate and do admire when they see them.

At the other end of the scale is the cardboard coffin.

Just as unique, but offering a more basic resting place.

Hefin Williams from the Gwendraeth Valley has one such funeral.

The family didn't want anything over the top

so they decided to go for a cardboard coffin.

Some people think it is a bit odd to have cardboard coffins but it's

surprising, to be honest with you, how much good of a quality a cardboard coffin is.

It is a bit cheaper but the quality is the same, you know.

You may think that a cardboard coffin isn't strong enough

and although they do pose some practical concerns for the funeral directors,

the best ones are more than capable of holding up to 26st,

but still set you back £375.

If the rigid angles of a conventional-shape coffin

are a bit too harsh for you, then you can always choose

an eco-friendly Welsh organic wool cocoon.

The cocoons are hand produced in a little chapel in Devon by Yuli Somme.

The leaf cocoon is an alternative to a coffin.

The whole thing is really, really strong

and you don't see the shape of the body because there are so many layers of felt

and that seems to be something very important for people.

We make these leaf cocoons in this amazing chapel.

So often people are worried that a shroud is going to be really floppy,

that the body is going to smell.

It's not a problem. I haven't had that as a problem.

We start with a wooden structure and it's very strong

and we encase that in felt.

Waterproof paper membrane that will take care of any leakage.

And then there's a nice wool padding on the top and straps.

Then over the top of that is a decorated leaf.

I will definitely be buried in one of my leaf cocoons,

but I haven't decided what design I'm going to have yet.

Further personalising your casket, you can choose a colourful coffin,

which you can have printed with images of your choice.

Keith Davies was an avid sailor, so what better to adorn his coffin

than a sailing boat drifting off into the sunset?

Although Wales is surrounded by sea on three sides, if you do want

a burial at sea then your choice of location is limited to Southampton.

John Lister is an expert in sea burials

and carries out on average ten a year, costing upwards of 4,000 each.

Leaving Southampton today, John is taking Pamela Poole

to her final resting place just off The Needles at the Isle of Wight.

With one daughter living in Canada and one in the UK,

Pamela wanted to be resting in between them both.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have come here today

as an expression of our regard for the life of a beloved human being.

When the sun sets on the ocean blue,

remember me as I will always remember you.

We therefore commit her body to the deep in maritime tradition.

May she rest in peace.

In order for the coffin to be suitable for a sea burial,

it needs to be weighted down and drilled with holes

so that it sinks to the sea floor.

A wet Monday morning in the Gwendraeth Valley

and Hefin Williams is preparing for a funeral that,

by the decision of the deceased, won't have any mourners.

We've got a funeral first thing this morning at Llanelli Crematorium. It will be a different funeral.

There will be no family, no minister, no vicar, nobody there.

So it will just be myself and my staff.

We have to do it right as there would be 300 people there,

so the same respect will be shown.

The funeral will be done properly

because this gentleman has been a son, father, grandfather.

So it's important, you know.

He has been loved over the years

so we are going to make sure that he has a good send-off, as they say.

I spend a lot of time in the hearse.

Sometimes short journeys, sometimes long journeys, you know.

Today is a half-hour journey to Llanelli Crematorium.

Today nobody will see me walking in front of the hearse, but it's respect.

Personally, I think it's very important.

It is tradition, I suppose. I think it is a very nice touch.

When we arrive at the crematorium,

we will do exactly the same as we do in every other funeral.

There will be four bearers, we will walk in to music.

Then there will be a minute's silence during the curtain, the committal part,

then there will be a piece of music on the way out of the crematorium.

# Calon lan yn llawn daioni

# Tecach yw na'r lili dlos. #

Some people think because there is nobody going to be in the funeral,

the coffin will go through the back door.

But no, everyone goes through the front door in the crematorium

because it is the respect.

It is quite emotional, actually, and touching.

It gives you the shivers a bit. You feel for that person.

You think of the family at this time.

It is a privilege, to be honest, you know,

to carry out the family's wishes.

You know, we show professionalism and it's a privilege.

It was a nice service, as the gentleman wanted.

So we carried out his wishes.

# Roddi i mi galon lan. #

Cardiff Prison is the destination this morning

of Baglan undertaker Gareth Jenkins.

Today, I am going to prison and I am looking forward to it.

Funeral directors know only too well the positive impact

that charities have on the lives of the living

and the support they offer with the aftermath of family loss.

As well as dealing with donations on a daily basis, it is very important

that they support their communities and raise money for good causes.

Next weekend, the Funeral Association and myself

and my staff are climbing to the top of Snowdon on a charity walk

for a children's bereavement charity.

I thought if I had a really quirky and cool T-shirt, people could

buy the T-shirt and all the proceeds would go towards the charity.

Rehabilitation of prisoners is key to manager Greg Fisher

and to Cardiff Prison.

As part of this, they have an on-site print shop

that offers a real workplace environment for prisoners.

Two inmates that work at the print shop are going to help Gareth

with his funeral director designer shirts.

Designed it separately because we're going to print on to a black T-shirt.

We'll obviously design the T-shirt, so all the outside of it will all be black and then on the waistcoat.

We will also put the jacket then at the bottom

so it looks like the jacket is open or shut,

coming down underneath as well.

That's a nice touch, that is, isn't it?

I can see there is a lot of work involved.

Because of the layout of the T-shirt,

we are printing it off on individual colour vinyl.

Gold, white, black.

They are all going to be individual colour vinyl.

I have always liked fiddly work anyway

and it's the perfect job for me, to be honest with you.

-This is the final T-shirt.

-Final T-shirt

Also on a mission to raise money is James Tovey and his family.

They are all out biking on Father's Day for an important cause.

We are here for the Father's Day bike ride. Exciting day.

It is the first Father's Day bike ride in aid of Prostate Cymru.

This is my wife, Catherine, and my two sons, Harry and Ben.

They are looking forward to it as well.

We haven't done much practice so we'll see how it goes.

Obviously, I want to spend time with the family,

so the more time I get to do that the better.

So it's nice when events like this are about the family.

I would quite like to be maybe a funeral director like my dad

because I want to be like my dad because he's a good person.

Off we go. Come on. Have a nice time.

I think every family has been touched by cancer in one way

or another and it's just good to raise awareness for all

the different types and obviously prostate cancer has got

particular relevance for fathers, so it's nice to raise some awareness.

Slight halt to the bike race. It is milking time, I'm afraid.

That is the perils of country life.

Just a few minutes to catch our breath while the cows cross the road.

Hopefully we will get going soon.

I think it's really important, whatever job you do, to have time off,

to spend time with your family, time to recharge batteries.

So it's great to just completely switch off and do something different.

We really enjoyed it.

Raising money for prostate cancer, it's an important charity as well.

The funeral directors have gathered at Llanberis for their charity climb

and Gareth's T-shirts are going down a storm.

The shirts have created quite a bit of an impact. Everybody likes them.

I didn't think it would be as difficult as it was.

As you can see, the sunshine was shining bright when we started

and I certainly won't be needing these any more!

I was told the weather can change like that and it certainly has.

It is surprising how cold it is.

I did promise myself a reward, a wee dram. Iechyd da!

Lovely.

CHEERING

The job of an undertaker is one of the oldest professions

and generation after generation have made their living out of dying.

However, this is certainly not a job for most of us,

but we have seen them at work.

The Welsh funeral is changing, though.

More and more reflecting the personalities of the deceased.

A celebration of their life.

For the modern Welsh funeral director,

their job now is to make our final wishes possible.

But tradition is still absolutely central to their work,

as it remains a true family business for many.

For young funeral directors like Stuart Booth in Laugharne,

the past informs his present and the family's future.

Dylan Thomas, he is just synonymous with Laugharne

and the one big connection we've got is when Dylan Thomas' wife,

Caitlin, passed away it was called upon my grandfather

to carry out the funeral service for them.

She passed away abroad and they went and brought her home from the airport

and carried out the whole funeral.

There was loads of press about, calling up the house.

They had to keep the body in a secret location

just to stop fans getting access to her and everything like that.

Now I'm a bit older, I understand why it was such a prestigious thing to have done.

With the job we do, we see devastation and sorrow every day of our life,

so any time you get to spend with your family is so important.

It helps you unwind after a hard day, dealing with what we deal with.

To come home and see Mason running around and digging in the sand like today, you know,

and laughing, it helps you unwind and it brings you

back down to earth and it makes everything a lot easier.

It's not work to me.

It's a way of life and I am quite excited about the future

with the new building, new premises and everything like that.

Yes, it's quite an exciting time in my life, really.

With Mason, I often think will he take to this?

Is it a job he will end up doing?

I mean, I would be so proud

if he did carry on and took on the job and I would love him to.

But I would also like him to play number ten for Wales!