Mark This Day With Love

About Anita Peters' Funeral Celebrant Services

Anita is a certified Life Tribute Professional (Insight Institute) and Humanist Celebrant (American Humanist Association).

She has led formal and informal secular celebrations/ceremonies at graveside, in residences, in public and private gardens, on a boat, and in a funeral home.

“I’ve had families ask everyone to wear joyful outfits, plant a tree, scatter bird seed in a garden, create an ephemeral work of art, or circle of remembrance.”

She has arranged a ceremonies within a week or six months after a death.

She is an experienced facilitator of end-of-life planning conversations: she brought the Death Café Movement to the humanist community in Connecticut and hosts two Death Cafes a year.

“It is a special responsibility to be the voice of the family and I am always moved when asked to take on this important role and honored by the trust given to me freely. A humanist memorial is life affirming, celebrating a person’s life while at the same time acknowledging a loss. During my initial meetings, I often discover who else I should be present for, a sister in California, an estranged child or an old friend. I may be calling long distance or arranging an in-person meeting before beginning to write a life tribute that will honor the family’s loss and the person now gone. It must also speak to everyone who will be coming to support each other at this difficult time .”

She assumes this responsibility with empathy and compassion: within the past four years she has arranged lifetime tributes for her mother and husband.

Within her community, she is leading a re-imagining of death and dying, to be reflective of the humanist celebration of life ceremonies.

She is an avid reader of Poetry and all of her ceremonies include poems and the music loved by the deceased or chosen by the family.