Childless elderly arrange own funeral services

An ordinary memorial ceremony was held in Shanghai on Monday, organized by funeral home workers instead of the children of the deceased.

"This is a new service for elderly people in the city who are childless. The project aims to help those people and relieve their worries," said Wu Xiaogang, a manager at the Shanghai Funeral and Interment Service Center.

The deceased, an 89-year-old man named Zhang, who had lived in a nursing home for years, had signed a agreement in April with the Shanghai Baoxing Funeral Home, which is affiliated with the service center.