Heartache of brothers told off for comforting mum at dad’s funeral
TWO brothers berated for moving too close to their mother at their father’s funeral yesterday spoke of their heartache over the incident.
Craig Bicknell and his sibling Paul said the episode was “absolutely heartbreaking”.
The brothers said they were stopped from comforting their “vulnerable” mother on the hardest day of their lives.
Craig, from Milton Keynes, told how he had moved his chair at the funeral of his father Alan Wright at Crownhill Crematorium in the town.
Spotting his move to comfort his mother, Paul followed suit.
But, moments later, a member of staff is said to have interrupted the service by waving his arms and shouting at the mourners to move the chairs back because of social distancing rules.
Yesterday, the devastated brothers explained they hadn’t left their mother’s side since their father passed away.
They said that the staff member moving towards them with “aggression” had made the hardest day of their life even worse.
Paul said: “It was absolutely heartbreaking to go through.
“That it was the hardest day of our life anyway, someone moving with that aggression, when all we wanted to do was comfort our mum at the hardest time.”
Craig added that he had warned staff at the crematorium that he would have to comfort his mother “if she broke” and that he and Paul had been by her side since their father passed away.
He added: “I had to make a split second decision to react – do I talk to him and beg to be with my mum?
“Or sit back down and give my dad the service he needed? There was anger, it was a really empty feeling.”
In a video capturing the extraordinary moment on camera, mourners can be seen seated around the funeral room in a socially distanced arrangement.
As the service begins, Craig, who was sitting in the front row, moves his chair to be next to his mother, placing his arm around her shoulder in comfort. The man on the other side of her quickly follows suit, before a person in the second row begins to move his chair closer to a woman seated next to him.
But then a man rushes into the frame, waving his arms and shouting: “Sorry, sorry, you have to put the chairs back I’m afraid.”
As he approaches the mourners in the front row, he says: “You can’t move the chairs – you were told.”
The stunned group then move back to their original positions, and the celebrant continues with the service.
But Craig said he and his brother Paul were left devastated by the “telling off”, as they grieved the loss of their father who had died from a heart attack in September.
The brothers have already received an outpouring of support on social media and were interviewed on Good Morning Britain.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Milton Keynes Council, which operates the crematorium, said: “We are sorry to have upset this family.
“We don’t usually step in if a guest needs to be comforted by another family member and in this instance should have taken a more considered approach.
“We ask funeral directors to let us know whether any chairs should be grouped in advance, and from now on this includes guests who are in the same household or bubbles, as well as people who need extra support.
“We hope this provides additional comfort at a difficult time.”