the loss of allie 0124

John Ashworth from Golden Considerations expresses his gratitude to those in the funeral home industry and shares his personal experience with the loss of his beloved dog, Allie. He highlights the importance of pre-planning arrangements for pets and family members and acknowledges the valuable work being done by funeral professionals. He thanks his audience for their support and offers assistance to those in local communities. Check one, two, three, four, check. John Ashworth here from Golden Considerations. Thanks for tuning in. So I'm sitting here at my desk the Friday after New Year's, first Friday of the new year, 2024, and I swear I heard Allie bark upstairs. Before I came down, I thought to myself, I got to check on the dog before I go down to my desk to take care of the things I need to take care of today. And this process, this confusing, sad, and unfortunate process continues as we grieve the loss, mourn the loss of our 13-year Labradoodle, Allie. She was amazing. We called her Spirit Dog. And I can talk about it now. It happened a week before Christmas. It was and is devastating. And the story I wanted to tell about it is the story of Page and Cough Funeral Home, who took care of us. I had discovered their pet cremation business a number of months back when I first got started with Golden Considerations and I was calling on funeral homes. I stopped by to see Cindy and Kevin because I knew them from my work at Fraser Consultants, and I discovered that they had this pet cremation business and we talked a lot about it. And we talked a lot about how it's helping their at-need business in terms of marketing and outreach and all kinds of things. So that's a really valuable thing I'll talk about another time because what I want to focus on here is just how it really gave me even more respect, admiration for what you all do day to day, for the humans, for the pets, and for all those that are lost every single day, every single week. And I just want to say thank you to all of you out there, taking care of your families and communities in this way. And it makes me think of a moment that I had with my wife a day or two after Allie died where she came to me and just said, John, thank you so much for making the arrangements for Allie in advance, for setting it up with Page and Cough. It's just so nice to know that she is in good care while we go through this amazing, it wasn't an official pre-plan, but it was a plan I set up in advance. I knew exactly what I was going to do when the time came and it made a world of difference. And that's the other lesson is the amazing benefit of making these arrangements for your family members, including your pets, in advance. So thanks to all of you for all the great work you're doing. Thanks for tuning in to this new newsletter and podcast here at Golden Considerations. My name is John Ashworth, and we are here for you. Let us know how we can help support you in your efforts in your local communities. And once again, thanks for being here. Take care.