MY FATHER died in August, a welcome relief from old age and cancer; but then my family and I had to go through the forest of registering the death, arranging the funeral and notifying endless officials.

People don’t talk enough about death and funerals, so we were charting the path as we went, although millions have been that way before.

Contrast death with buying a house or getting married – think of the volume of advice and anecdotes you get for those!

Death hurts, but more than ever we were given love and spiritual support, as well as help to arrange a wonderful funeral.

I just didn’t know beforehand how many copies of the death certificate (£10 each) I actually needed.

Please can we talk about that sort of thing?