Alenka joined Funeral Guides in 2021 and has proven herself in every role. In addition to creating ceremonies and speaking with the bereaved, she focuses on designing memorial notices.

She was brought to the team by personal experience, which initially left her with a rather negative view of death. Because of this, she decided to help transform funeral services so that a farewell could truly be a celebration of a loved one's life.

Alenka is naturally cheerful and empathetic, qualities that shine through in her speeches. She is glad when families find understanding and comfort in her words.

She used to live in Prague, where she studied human resources management and worked in office management for large companies. After seven years in the capital, she decided to return to her native Jizera Mountains and now lives in Liberec, where she helps raise awareness of modern funeral culture. When she is not helping with funerals, she works in the HR department of the regional hospital.

In addition to creating ceremonies and speeches, Veronika contributes to articles, videos, and posts. She takes pride in ensuring that speeches reflect the personality of both the deceased and the bereaved—some can be profound and deeply moving, while others are lighthearted and smile-inducing. It is entirely up to you how you wish to approach the speech and the ceremony. Her greatest compliment is hearing, "That sounded exactly like something mom / grandma / my sister would have written."

Veronika is also a trained linguist, translator, and interpreter, and she works as a lecturer. You can speak with her in Czech, Slovak, English, or Spanish. You might have heard her at the Book World fair or at Oktagon. In her spare time, she translates poetry, plays video games, and enjoys art. If you happen not to find her online, she is most likely out riding her motorcycle.

Oleg is the founder of Funeral Guides. "It started as an experiment, and we did things completely differently back then. But gradually, people told us what they wanted and what they didn't, and we listened. In fact, most of what we do today comes directly from our practice and our clients: we see what genuinely helps them."

You will often meet Oleg during your first contact with us: he answers phone calls and messages. He also accompanies many of our clients throughout the entire process.

Born in Košice to Czech-German parents, he studied in Brno and has lived in Prague for nearly twenty years. Professionally, he originally managed transformation projects for companies undergoing major changes: starting in telecommunications and continuing with companies such as Alza, Česká spořitelna, and PPF.

Outside of work, you will find him spending time with his wife and two children, heading to the mountains, going to a concert, enjoying a beer, or running a marathon.

Bára is from Prague, studied landscape architecture at the Czech University of Life Sciences (FŽP ČZU), and joined Funeral Guides in 2021. She works as a freelance marketer and copywriter. In her free time, she enjoys nature or traveling around Europe with her two dogs in a campervan named Sušenka (Cookie). Her interests also include gastronomy, ecology, and ethical living.

Renata is a teacher by training who has long been dedicated to alternative education.

She became interested in palliative care and funeral services after the passing of her grandmother, whom the family lovingly said goodbye to at home. This experience opened a new dimension of life and death for her, showing her that she could remain deeply calm, clear, empathetic, and supportive of both the dying and the bereaved. Feeling a calling to develop this gift further, she began volunteering in a palliative care ward and joined Funeral Guides.

Renata loves wandering through nature, dancing, visiting the sauna, spending time with her family, and listening to authentic human stories.

Adriana comes from the Pošumaví region, where she returned after living in Prague for nearly twenty years. She studied anthropology and remains fascinated by the diversity of ways to live on this planet. She considers Indonesia her second home and also has a deep fondness for Madagascar. In the Czech Republic, she works in the non-profit sector and currently spends most of her free time with her family.

She was led to Funeral Guides by her dissatisfaction with the services of a traditional funeral home following the death of her baby, and a desire to help change this industry. At a time when the bereaved are overwhelmed by the death of a loved one, she wants to stand by their side, listen closely to their wishes, and help bring them to life. She sees a proper farewell to the deceased as an important ritual that has accompanied humanity since its beginnings and which she considers essential for starting a healthy grieving process.

Eliška comes from Mariánské Lázně, but since high school—whenever she is not abroad—she has lived in Prague, which she has grown to love.

The topic of death was close to her heart from an early age, and it weighed on her that she had no one to talk about it with. Only in adulthood did she forgive her parents for forbidding her in childhood from attending the funerals of her loved ones, and she now strives to support a different perspective on funerals.

She has always enjoyed asking philosophical questions, and later her interest expanded into psychology, focusing mostly on interpersonal relationships. Due to her heightened sensitivity and empathy, she is a good listener and strives to guide others toward mutual understanding and the acceptance of both others and themselves.

She loves nature, so she is also interested in ecology, and her innovative mind enjoys figuring out how things could be done differently and better in the world. So far, however, she creates only on paper or a computer. Besides writing, she also takes photos and shoots videos, including at ceremonies.

In her free time, she also likes to dance, travel, and enjoy life to the fullest.

Hanina is a young woman with a big soul who carries a love for life and people in everything she does. 

Thanks to her natural openness to new opportunities, she moved from her native Brno to Prague, where she began studying business administration. The new environment also allowed her to develop her creative side through painting and the study of fashion design.

Inner peace plays an important role in her life, which she finds both in nature and, for example, while caring for houseplants. No matter what it is, she believes that everything needs proper care, undisturbed attention, appropriate time, and space. She considers compassion to be her life's calling, and it was this deep feeling that led her to work as a funeral guide. She ensures that a funeral is not just about mourning, but also about remembering and celebrating life. Because care combined with compassion can transform every moment into something deeply meaningful and human—and Hanina will always find a place for that in her heart.

She was led to Funeral Guides by a desire to guide people through their final farewell with kindness and sensitivity. And it was no coincidence—since childhood, she has witnessed a number of funerals that managed to respect and love the uniqueness of each life story. She believes that even though the loss of a loved one is often a lonely and painful journey, we do not have to walk it alone.

Aylani lives in Prague, spent her childhood in Moravia, and studied and worked in the USA for 10 years as a social worker. She regularly encountered death while accompanying people with cancer, and later she dedicated her time to supporting the education of children from slums in Bangladesh, among other things. For the past 10 years, foster care has been an important part of her life. Together with her husband, she cared for children who could not grow up in their biological families as a transitional foster parent; today, she guides foster parents in their beautiful yet challenging role and dedicates herself to therapeutic parenting—a healing approach for children with relational trauma.

She finds fulfillment in spending time with children and being a gentle, present support in contact with others. Nature is a source of connection and nourishment for her—she loves spending time in it, singing, hiking, sleeping under the stars, and gathering herbs.

Noemi believes that the most precious thing we have as humans in life is relationships, and that knowing how to care for them sometimes means knowing how to say a proper goodbye. Driven by the desire to support those going through the period of a final farewell with a loved one, she joined Funeral Guides. In everything she does in life, Noemi tries to seek God, love, truth, and hope.

She collaborates with the Hisland publishing house, where she has the opportunity to communicate important topics to the younger generation through art. She is also dedicated to the Deaf community and professional interpretation into Czech Sign Language.

In her free time, she runs, does handstands, and paints on canvases with spray paint.

What she appreciates most about working at Funeral Guides is that people trust her enough to share their stories with her. She values the opportunity to be their support in moments when they need it most. She was led to this work by her own personal experience with loss, after which she felt how deeply the social taboo surrounding death can isolate a grieving person. This is precisely what motivates her to help change the way we talk about death—more openly and with greater understanding.

In her free time, she likes to read with a cat on her lap, listen to podcasts, play games, or laugh at dry British humor. She enjoys improvisation, whether from the stage or the audience, and likes going to cabaret and aerial sports performances. She volunteers in organizations that help both people and animals.

She enjoys having deeper conversations with people—she likes creating a safe space where it is possible to speak openly, for example through conversational card games that help naturally open up topics that are otherwise often left unspoken. These include mental health, death, interpersonal relationships, and other questions touching on meaning and experience.

Adéla comes from near Pardubice, and Brno is her second home. She studied Fine and Visual Arts at the Department of Art Education of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University, taught art at an elementary art school, and volunteers at St. Elizabeth's Hospice.

Having encountered death within her family in various intensities and waves since childhood, she decided to befriend death and accompany those who wish and need it in its proximity – from a distance through the Smrtelník Podcast, which is her personal project, and closely through Funeral Guides.

Aside from her podcast, Adéla paints and creates, dances contact improvisation, and studies within the TIAMAT integrative approach, which helps her deepen her mindfulness and care for others, staying grounded in life to balance the close contact with death.

Eva came to the Funeral Guides through her passion for event organization. Shortly after her grandmother's funeral in a traditional ceremony hall, she had the opportunity to experience a service with the Guides. She was surprised by how beautiful a farewell could be and how important it is to involve the bereaved, including children, in the entire process. She sees the role of a guide as an opportunity to help people in their most difficult moments, showing that a funeral doesn't have to mean just black clothes and tears. She likes to talk about farewells as celebrations of life and believes that a proper farewell can be very healing.

She most frequently hosts ceremonies, with the goal of guiding the bereaved through the farewell with sensitivity, humility, and sometimes even a smile. "I wish everyone had the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved one exactly the way they feel it."

Magda comes from Pilsen. Her own experience brought her to the team – her grandmother's funeral in a crematorium ceremony hall. The feeling of emptiness after the service, along with the memory of crying children and the casket moving away, became a strong motivation for her to organize a completely different final farewell for her sister, which is how she crossed paths with the Funeral Guides.

This direct encounter with death led her to want to participate in farewells that are personal, intimate, and healing – just like the one for her sister. She believes it is immensely important to be close to people in such moments, to listen, provide support, and not leave them alone. When the time comes, she would like to accompany the bereaved on their journey through grief and coming to terms with the death of a loved one.

Magda spends her free time most often with her family in nature and on the move, whether on foot, cycling, or skiing.

Petra has been celebrating and exploring the Mexican Day of the Dead for twelve years, which inspired her to organize a memorial ceremony with the Funeral Guides. She perceives rituals of remembering the deceased not only as an opportunity to reminisce and make peace with them within ourselves, but also as a form of mental hygiene.

 Petra studied social anthropology and considers Mexico her second home, where she regularly returns. In the Czech Republic, she works as a social science researcher in the private organization INESAN. What she enjoys most about anthropological research is interviewing and working with people.

In her free time, she most enjoys traveling, writing about Mexico, learning Spanish, taking photographs, and visiting well-known as well as lesser-known cemeteries.

I am a new colleague, originally from Rostov-on-Don (southern Russia), and have been living in Prague for 4 years. Since the beginning of the war, I have been volunteering to help refugees from Ukraine, primarily with interpreting in Czech state institutions.

I have long been interested in Christian and pre-Christian funeral rites. I strive to understand the meanings hidden behind our traditional ceremonies and to find ways to express them today – whether by organizing ceremonies according to the original traditions of our ancestors or by introducing new approaches to certain elements to make the ceremony more personal, reflecting the uniqueness of the deceased and our relationship with them.

This is how I found the Funeral Guides group – a name that could be translated into Russian as “Сопровождающие в погребальном обряде”. I will be glad to support you both organizationally and personally. Подробную информацию о проведении похорон на русском языке вы найдёте здесь.