Roberta Louise Baumann

Mum was a four-foot-eleven pocket rocket. A snack size supercell storm of a mother, full of life right to the end.

She loved cooking, and giving was probably her love language. She’d teach my kids to cook, but it was never really about the food. They’d make a little meal, set the table, write a menu complete with artwork... and then we’d all sit there admiring how amazing the kids were. That was Mum.

She was a keeper, too. Sorting her things took days, and somewhere in our freezer sat a container marked “ghastly goulash” in her handwriting. I love her for a million reasons, but the goulash wasn’t one of them.

When the cancer came back, my brother, my sister and I cared for her almost around the clock for about three months. She always said she wanted her kids to handle everything... and we did.

Why Rest exists

Mum chose a cardboard casket, a Daisybox, and the whole family decorated it. When I rang the only local funeral company, I was told her choice was “disgusting” and “not industry standard”. The crematorium said cardboard was fine, but I’d need a funeral director to book it.

Surely there was a better way. So two weeks before Mum died, I registered a funeral business.

That business is Rest. Every family who decorates a casket, keeps their person home a little longer, or asks “are we allowed to do that?” (yes, you are) is part of what Mum started.

If you’d like to hear more of our story, have a listen.

Thanks Mum. Love you.