Carrying it forward
By Roberta Da Costa |
In Namibia, people show up. When someone passes, you’re not alone. Family comes. Neighbours pitch up. Friends arrive, sometimes quietly, sometimes all at once. The yard fills up. People talk in small groups. Others just get on with things that need to be done.
That’s just how it is.
Funerals bring out something different in people. You hear stories you’ve never heard before. Someone reminds you of a moment you forgot, or never even knew about. And slowly, you start to see the full picture of who that person was, and how far their life reached.
There’s a kind of dignity in all of it too. Not something people announce, but you see it. In the way everything is prepared. How guests are received. The effort to make sure things are done properly, with care. But it doesn’t come easily.
Behind everything, families are dealing with a lot at the same time. There’s grief, of course. But also planning, expectations, costs. Decisions that can’t wait. It piles up quickly, and it can take people out of the moment when they most need to just be together.
That’s why planning ahead matters more than people think.
Even doing a little bit in advance helps. It takes away some of the pressure. There’s less rushing around, less guessing about what needs to happen. Things feel a bit more manageable, and people can take a breath.
Funeral cover helps with that, but it’s not everything. It’s just one way to make things easier for the people you leave behind. One less thing for them to worry about. One way to help keep things dignified without adding more stress. And in a way, it says something.
It shows where your priorities were. That even in difficult moments, you were still thinking about your family. Still trying to make things lighter for them. That’s how these things carry on. Not through big, loud gestures. Just small decisions that matter later.
Because dignity isn’t something you quickly put together at the end. It’s something that’s taken care of long before it’s needed.
– Ms Roberta Da Costa is the Head of Distribution, Retail Mass Business, at Old Mutual Namibia.
