Check out the Conversation Project in the US and next time you’re prepping dinner, dicing carrots or enjoying a bite and a glass with friends, use Final Fling as the perfect excuse for starting conversations about life and death.
At the end of 2015, Scottish Government commissioned Citizens Advice Scotland to produce a report about the cost of funerals in Scotland. Final Fling met with authors John Birrell and Fraser Sutherland in December to talk ‘funeral poverty’ and feed into the report.
This week’s blogger, Maggie, shares her experience of her mum’s Alzheimer’s.
“I’m at peace. I have no worries or fear. Death is nothing to be afraid of.”
Bucket List moment today. Got onto Woman’s Hour! Listen again. Jenni Murray was her usual amazing self, interviewing Fling blogger Dr Kate Granger, Jenny Katzinger, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, fab funeral director Emma O’Driscoll (and daughters) with myself and Emma Freud doing the last 5 minutes. As I heard someone say today, every time you take one […]
To kick off 2016, Jane Duncan Rogers ran a Planning a good death workshop, incorporating her own book, her Good Death Checklist and Final Fling’s planning tools, giving workshoppers the chance to chat, share, think, talk, plan and record. Here, Jane shares a bit about the session and the feedback. Our sell-out Planning a Good Death […]
10 years ago, it occurred to me that maybe women do death differently. That’s when I bought the domain name, Final Fling, in the hope that I could contribute in some way. We’re more about emotional engagement than transaction. We’re collaborative, supportive, we cut to the chase and focus on the important things. We’re good at […]
9.30am and I’ve already read a couple articles about death as a medical failure. The thing is, the great authorities: professionals, doctors and surgeons who do such an amazing and laudable job to protect, cure and save us, also just find it very, very hard to let go. Maybe almost as hard as we do. And […]
Breast cancer and chemo. There’s something you don’t want to be thinking about. Ever. But Flinger, Cally Nurse had to recently. We thought it might help others to hear Cally’s experience, told in her words: “Chemo is not for me I’m afraid,” I said to Mr Harris…
As we set forth on the good ship 2016, if you’re focus is on how to ‘get rich or die tryin’, let us make it easy for you.
And to save you reading on… if you see ‘rich’ and think fame and fortune, you are lost my friend. If you see ‘rich’ and think happiness, joy, fulfilment, you’re on the right track. Keep reading.
Happy new you! Yep. That’s what Final Fling is all about. Making life the best it can be, whatever is going on for you.
So if you’re in New Year’s Resolution mode, new year, new start, new you, how about doing a wee bit of thinking, feeling, reflecting and planning that might set you off on the right foot for the year and even take a load off.
If you need help, coping with loss at Christmas, we think you might like a look at tips from The Compassionate Friends. This group has come together through common experience – the loss of a son or daughter. The tips, we think, will be of general help to anyone dealing with loss.
How does the future of palliative care in Scotland look? Well, talking to friends involved in death and dying down South, pretty good actually.
That’s in no small part to the work of an active and engaged group of people who meet as the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and who run the website Good Life Good Death Good Grief and its events, like To Absent Friends festival.
There’s no hierarchy in pain when it comes to death, but there’s no denying, losing a child as a baby is a new parent’s nightmare. This week, Matt Cunninham shares his experience of losing his daughter Molly.
I’ve just been in London speaking at Living Well Dying Well’s conference. What a great event.
It’s inspiring to get together with like-minded folk and share what’s happening. There’s a swell, a movement afoot that might help us get back some of the skills in our communities that we used to have so that we’ll be better able to live and die well.
This week Chris Burns-Cox talks to us about Give a Kidney, the charity he founded after his own amazing experience of donating a kidney.
“Six years ago I read in a newspaper that a GP from Surrey had given a kidney to a stranger …
Ageing or aging, however you spell it (and both are right) it’s the timebomb of our era.
My recent post about caring for an elderly parent is the context for my continued thinking around ageing.
Caring for an elderly parent – where to start? That’s very ‘up’ for me at the moment.
We’ve been in rescue mode, driving an 86 year old for hours from a place of social isolation and increasing depression and anxiety to… well, you hope a place of some comfort and company but have to recognise it’s also in reality an unfamiliar household with different patterns, pace and rules.
This week, Pam Diamond shares her uplifting story of caring for her dying dad. We hope these intimate stories from friends of Final Fling will help others going through challenging times.
“A couple of days ago I enjoyed an early morning walk on the beach to clear my head.
Death workshops give you the opportunity to explore aspects of yourself that often don’t get a voice or space.
This week, Phil Goss, from Cumbria shares his experience of a Death Workshop. This might help you if you’re thinking about attending one.
We lost a friend suddenly. A friend of a crowd of us. None of us really knew her family – as often happens.
A year on from her funeral, I wanted to post a wee tribute on Final Fling.
Why? I wondered.
I think it’s like the importance of the ‘say their names’ campaign run by The Compassionate Friends who encourage families who have lost a son or daughter to say the names and tell the stories of our loved and lost.