I'm a RENT-A MOURNER!

Jeane's dedicated to making sure people have a good farewell

- OLIVE CLARK

Walking around the cemetery, I looked in awe at all the beautiful monuments.

Wow, it never gets old, I thought.

Aged 10, I was with my parents, Mary and Joe, on one of our regular cemetery visits.

A family tradition, we’d meet Mum’s brothers and sisters there, and pay our respects to our relatives who’d passed.

The adults tidied up the graves of our loved ones and put down flowers.

And while my bored cousins often sat in the car waiting, I’d walk around, looking at the old Victorian gravestones.

I'd wander off too far, charmed by my surroundings I loved looking at the angels and crosses on the graves.

'Jeane, come on, we're going,' my parents would yell when they were ready to leave.

Getting into photography at 11, I started taking snaps of my favourite cemeteries and graves. These crumbling pieces of art were so gorgeous, they needed to be captured.

Mum and Dad didn't think it was weird that I appreciated these small architectural wonders.

Devastatingly, my lovely dad, Joe, died from a lung condition aged just 42, when I was 14.

An only child, I helped Mum organise the funeral.

When we sadly lost more relatives in my teens, I'd help out again, arranging a good send-off for them.

To me, it was a natural part of life and I wanted to make sure my loved ones had the funeral they deserved.