Three is the number of GoFundMe links I received during the pandemic for relatives that had sadly passed away. £9,493 is the average cost of funeral arrangements in 2020, which was 3.1% higher than in 2018, and 8.5 million is the current number of people living in the UK without life insurance.
Last week, my mum received a call from a family friend who had unfortunately lost her sister. It was devastating. The call ended and my mum rushed over to me asking whether I knew how to make a GoFundMe page. I dare not say it out loud, but I thought to myself ‘another one?’, as she proceeded to explain that the lady who called her wanted to make one for her sister, but her children refused to help because they didn’t agree with crowd-funding for their auntie.
I understood the stance her children took as there are many aspects of crowdfunding for the deceased that could cause animosity between family members, but the fact still remained that there needed to be a relatively large chunk of money generated in a short space of time, and to some cremation is seen as a taboo in the Igbo community. This made me also empathise with the family friend looking for her sisters’ close ones to contribute to the funeral arrangements because that is what we do in the black community. That is what we have always done.