A moving and inspiring account of how one Final Flinger used the site to help her live life to the full, right to the end.
Living life to the full – right to the end
About Us
Using lockdown productively for end of life planning
I’ve had a lovely connection with a Flinger over the past few weeks and I thought it worth sharing as a prompt to doing useful things with pockets of free time. If you are depressed by Coronavirus lockdown, feeling shackled by Covid-19 limitations, thinking more about end of life than usual, Dot’s tale might help. […]
Funeral parlours licensed like tattoo parlours
Scottish Government is introducing a statutory Code of Practice, an inspection programme and a licensing scheme for funeral businesses as part of a regulatory framework to ensure high standards of service. They’ll be working on implementation over 2019/20. In their consultation and investigation they drew an interesting parallel comparing the funeral parlour business model and […]
Order of Service recipe
This week, my friend Rebecca shares a surprising, delighting moment at a recent family funeral – to come across an Order of Service recipe. “Pat Mills, died at the end of last year and in my family, that officially marks the End of an Era. Pat and Bunty were legends. They were distant cousins of ours – […]
The Magic of Tidying
So… have you been caught up in the new-year-new-me frenzy created Marie Kondo’s best-selling book, The Magic of Tidying. If so, maybe, like me, you’ve found yourself folding t-shirts into small little stand-up packages and enjoying every minute of your new-found control, discipline and mindfulness.
Match-making for a terminal partner – what do you think?
So this week I’ve been contacted by a TV production company who are researching whether there’s programme potential in the subject of match-making for a terminal partner.
Suicide, the funeral eulogy and breaking the silence
I’m writing a funeral today and thinking about suicide, the funeral eulogy and breaking the silence.
Designing compassion into services for death and dying
Designing compassion into services for death and dying has been at the heart of Final Fling’s work since our online community launched in 2012.
6 years on, Founder Barbara Chalmers presented a slot on designing compassion into services for death at the Everyday Compassion conference organised by Good Life Good Death Good Grief to bring together death workers from all over Scotland and beyond.
Grief and the loss of a child
How on earth does anyone survive the loss of a child?
The feature film A Love That Never Dies, on release at selected independent cinemas this month, shares how some parents have coped.
Get ready for #GoodDeathWeek #WhatCanYouDo
An awareness-raising week is nothing without a good hashtag – so get ready for #GoodDeathWeek #WhatCanYouDo next week: 14-20 May.
How long grief lasts
For the last week, I’ve been reflecting on a question Professor Allan Kellehear raised about how long grief lasts. He posed this question during his keynote speech on Creating Compassionate Cities at the Everyday Compassion conference in Glasgow. He answered his own question. “Grief doesn’t last 6 weeks or 6 years. It lasts forever.”
Designing compassion into services
This week I’m talking at an end of life conference about designing compassion into services. The conference is Everyday Compassion: Supportive responses to dying and bereavement by schools, neighbourhoods and workplaces.
Living with the end in mind
I was thrilled to meet Kathryn Mannix in Glasgow at Aye Write book festival where she was talking in her gentle, wise voice about living with the end in mind. The audience hung on her every word as she shared the years of knowledge and experience she has built up as a palliative care specialist, […]
Coffins to inspire thinking about death
Friend of Final Fling, artist Gina Czarnecki, is chuffed that her plan to commission 25 coffins to inspire thinking about death has been funded, thanks to Arts Council England & Lottery Ticket-buyers.
Transforming funerals through design innovation
In case you hadn’t noticed, design innovation and funerals has been obsessing me for the past decade. So I’ve spent the past year really digging into this by studying for a Masters in Design Innovation (Service Design), with a focus on funerals, at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art.
Death Cafe feedback
This week, I’m reaching out for Death Cafe feedback from anyone who’s attended a Final Fling Death Cafe.
Absent Friends Supper
This Thursday, 9 November, I’m hosting an Absent Friends Supper at Kinning Park Complex. It’s free to attend and starts at 6pm.
To Absent Friends is an annual Scotland-wide festival promoted by our friends at Good Life Good Death Good Grief.
Masters in funerals
The big news today is that Barbara Chalmers, Founder of Final Fling now has a Masters – with distinction – in funerals.
“Well, in reality, it’s an MDes – a Masters in Design Innovation, Service Design – and my final project was on funerals, so I consider it a Masters in funerals,” said Barbara. “I just found out on Friday at our degree show that I achieved a Masters – with distinction – in funerals (as I call it) and I couldn’t be more delighted.”
Does Final Fling work internationally?
I’ve just had a message from Karin, a new Flinger in Australia, who – having just signed up over the weekend – wanted to check: does Final Fling work internationally?
I thought I’d share my answer more broadly. Yes it does!
Fling-o-Bingo card updated – end of life planning tool
We’ve updated our Fling-O-Bingo end of life planning tool after last week’s Dying Matters Awareness Week event, Byw Nawr (Live Now) in Cardiff.
What has bingo got to do with end of life planning, you may well ask! Well, always looking for accessible ways to open up conversations about life and death decisions, we use bingo cards as a way of playing a game to identify the Top 20 Essential Documents Next of Kin will need.