V8 My first ceremony - a naming

I began my training in June/July 2007 it was something I had wanted to do for many years but the huge waiting list had put me off.  Knowing that if I completed the course successfully at this time I would be released on the unsuspecting public in September 2008, was an exciting thought, and so my journey began.

At the beginning of my course a friend asked me if I would like to do a naming for members of her family and I jumped at the chance of gaining some experience.  My friend had family in England who were coming to Australia for a two week visit.  There were two children coming who my friend and her Dad had never met. 

There were also two new bubs who had been born around the same time here in Australia, so we cooked up our plan.
I would do a naming ceremony for five children from four different branches of the same family and to top it off we kept it a secret from my friend’s father as he was to be the guest of honour as a special surprise for him.  He had lost his wife of sixty years the year before and was still feeling quite lost without her.

I began gathering all the required details and putting the ceremony together, all done via the internet and info passed on by my friend.  Everything was going along nicely until I was diagnosed with breast cancer, almost five weeks before the ceremony date.  I was devastated and my friend suggested that we not proceed with the naming but I needed something to focus on and the ceremony was just the thing.  Well plans progressed nicely her father didn’t suspect a thing.  He was even home when we were designing and printing the certificates and he kept popping into room we were working in but because of his failing eyesight he didn’t really take any notice of what we were working on.

I had surgery to remove the cancer and a week later there we were at the naming.  I called the people together, then asked him to come and sit out the front with me and the ceremony began with a candle lighting in memory of his wife, this was done by him and his oldest great grandchild who was the sibling of one of the babies being named.  So as not to exclude her as she wasn’t being named she was my helper throughout the ceremony at just six years old (going on sixteen).

All babies finally named, my little helper then released six bio-degradable balloons, first hers to lead the way and then the other five one at a time.

The entire ceremony was a huge success, I was sore but just kept on soldiering on.  It was such an exhilarating experience for me and thus my new career began.

My friend’s dad turns ninety next June and his family are coming out from England once again to celebrate with him.  I hope and pray for his sake that the little eyesight he has left doesn’t deteriorate any more by then.

More about Eunice click here

Click on Photos to enlarge