Funeral director Gert-Harm Hoefakker has been dealing with death every day since childhood: ‘Relatives must feel understood’

March 26, 2024 at 5:00 PM

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ERMELO Gert-Harm Hoefakker was introduced to funeral care at an early age and dealt with death on a daily basis. After funeral training, he supervised funerals at the age of 21. This made him the youngest in the Netherlands at the time. This year, Hoefakker has been a funeral director for 25 years.

Hoefakker started as an employee and later continued independently with his wife Harri-janne. He saw many changes. “In the past, people often said: ‘Gert-Harm, you know exactly how everything should be done, so just arrange it.’ Nowadays, relatives have more input and personal wishes. That’s positive. After all, the point is that relatives can look back on the funeral with a good feeling, despite the sadness. Relatives must say goodbye in the way that suits them and the deceased. In my opinion, modesty is part of that process.”

TOUCHING

In the past quarter of a century, Hoefakker provided several thousand funerals. “Sometimes you are confronted with deeply moving events. Some funerals, no matter how long ago, I remember as if they were yesterday.”

IN YOUR OWN GRAVE

Relatives must feel understood and have confidence that the funeral arrangements are in safe hands, Hoefakker believes. “An intensive bond is created in just a few days. Sometimes people share harrowing stories or very personal circumstances in confidence. These are secrets that I will carry with me to my own grave.”

Gert-Harm and Harri-janne Hoefakker are Christians and experience this as essential in relation to their work. Harri-janne: “That you know about the living God, who always takes us by the hand and carries us, sometimes even beyond the boundaries of this earthly life. An endless reality awaits there without mourning and tears. This future perspective can be granted to everyone.”

Hoefakker Uitvaartzorg operates in Ermelo, Speuld, Garderen, Putten, Harderwijk, Hierden and surrounding areas and elsewhere in the country on request.
The funeral director wrote the freely available brochure ‘This is how I wish it, when my death comes’.
Website: www.hoefakkeruitvaartzorg.nl
Tel. 0341-700 230