14 May 2018

Written by Director Gareth Coles: Today marks the start of Dying Matters Awareness Week – a week dedicated to encouraging and helping people to talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement, and to make plans for the end of life. As you might expect, this is a mission that is very close to my […]

25 March 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: The clocks have gone forward, the sun is out here in Cardiff – and traditionally, this is the time of year we think about spring-cleaning our homes, tidying up the garden and getting our affairs in order. Earlier this month I wrote about how, if you’re looking for a new beginning […]

12 March 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: I started planning my blogs about ‘New Beginnings’, our theme this month, the day Cardiff experienced a foot of snow on St David’s Day! Just a few days later, our beautiful new baby daughter, Sophia, finally joined us in time for us to have an extra special Mother’s Day this […]

15 January 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: Following on from my blog on resolutions, I understand from some of the feedback that ‘getting organised’ is high on the agenda for lots of people this January! (It’s certainly high on our agenda as my wife and I get ready for the arrival of the newest addition to our […]

29 December 2017

Written by Director Gareth Coles: It’s with bittersweet reflection that I look back through 2017. After all, a very busy year for Coles Funeral Directors means that many of the families we’ve worked with will have been missing someone special during this Season’s festivities. We hope you’ve been remembering the good times…Throughout the year, a number of […]

13 December 2017

Written by Director Gareth Coles: In Wales, we closely associate December with Christmas, a favourite celebration in the Christian calendar. Yet December is a month of spiritually significant days for many religions. So as we’re half-way through Advent, a special time of reflection, remembrance and celebration for us here at Coles, we’d like to take the […]

30 November 2017

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: This month at Coles Funeral Directors, Remembrance has been at the forefront of all our minds – as we’re sure it has yours. We’d like to round off this month’s theme with posing the question: how would you like to be remembered?Here at Coles, we’d like to be remembered as […]

11 November 2017

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: Inspired by this year’s theme for the Poppy Appeal and Rethinking Remembrance – it’s got us thinking here at Coles, how do you remember your loved ones?Remembrance is defined as ‘the action of remembering something or someone’.  So whether you choose to remember someone by simply taking the time to […]

26 October 2017

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: We’ve been getting inspired at Coles this month as we look at innovation in the funeral industry. Today we’re looking at alternatives to interring or storing ashes in decorative urns. Some of the practices are already part of our service offering, but when it comes to memorials and keepsakes using […]

24 October 2017

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: Last week, I met with Care Home professionals from all over Cardiff and the South Wales area at the annual Care Roadshow held in Cardiff City Stadium. The conference that ran alongside the programme focussed on pioneering treatments for the elderly, and there were lots of innovative products on show […]

2 October 2017

Written by Gareth Coles: Throughout September we were actively campaigning to raise awareness about the importance of talking to your loved ones about what you want to happen when you die.Truthfully, it strikes me as strange that in this day and age when we spend months planning for Christmas; when it’s not unusual to take a […]

22 September 2017

Written by Gareth Coles: If you read the Echo, you may have read Cardiff pensioner Glenys Burrows’ tragic story of how her home in Ely was burgled while she slept, and the money she had been saving to pay for her funeral was stolen. It really touched us here at Coles and we simply had to […]