After 10 years developing Final Fling as a platform for end of life planning, I’m onto a new project… Only Human… human-centred service design consulting and Humanist celebrancy. I want to spend less time in the virtual space of online, digital and advance planning and more time in the real space of making the world […]
NOTE THE INFORMATION BELOW IS DATED. IT’S HERE FOR LEGACY PURPOSES… THESE PLATFORMS HAVE MOVED ON! I’m delighted to have teamed up with a couple of friends in the field to offer Final Flingers a secure alternative for their onward journey. As users know, I will be closing Final Fling at the end of May. […]
This is a lovely share from Ann, who used Final Fling and other resources to give her the knowledge, agency and power to get the send-off she and her parents wanted, without all the rigmarole: My parents wanted to plan their own funerals “Many years ago, my parents decided that they would like to plan […]
Thanks to Fling user, Pauline Tait, for taking time to write a personal tribute to Final Fling for the job it has done to help people engage with end of life planning. Take it away, Pauline. Thanks Final Fling “I would like to thank Barbara for creating Final Fling, for opening up rational discussions about […]
I hit another big milestone in March. If the world was normal, I would have my bus pass by now and be taking me and my white hair on jaunts. As it happens, they’re not issuing bus passes and there’s nowhere to go. I think about all the other people missing out on small and […]
I’m all about meaningful rites of passage. Small or large rituals to mark changes in life. As part of my own rite of passage to mark the process of winding down Final Fling, I want to share some of the lovely tributes I’ve been enjoying this month since I let users know that for me, […]
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. […]
I decided in the Covid-19 lock-down period not to get involved in scaremongering or engage in drama about death. My partner’s mum died from a cold in December. This wasn’t reported anywhere. It didn’t add to a daily count; it wasn’t publicised in headlines reporting on the number of old folks who slip away every […]
I’m not going to engage in the drama too much right now. Just wanted to suggest 5 things you can do right now to be ahead of the game. Set up a Final Fling account – always free. Get a Will in place. I have an adviser I can plug you into if you’re stuck. […]
I ordered my own coffin in 2012. I hadn’t realised I was joining a global revolution. It turns out, on the other side of the globe, in 2011, a group of active retirees in New Zealand began to happily meet up at the Coffin Club. They make friends, have a laugh and handcraft their own […]
We had a family Final Fling this month – a fond farewell. A good goodbye. It really was a wonderful celebration of a life well-lived. After all the years I’ve been encouraging others to plan ahead, it really was a joy to be delivering a funeral that had been thought-through and owned – by the […]
Friend of Fling, Ailsa, shared a lovely idea for remembering and we think it could help in the space of loss and remembering without burdening. Let’s say, we think it has legs… It can be a challenge sorting through the remains of a life. What to keep; what to let go. It can feel painful not to keep everything… as if […]
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 […]
It was a privilege this weekend to be invited up on the stage at the Scottish Funeral Awards 2019 to hand out shiny trophies to honour great work going on across Scotland. 22 different categories celebrated the work of funeral directors north, south, east and west along with all the essentials that we associate with […]
I was delighted to take part in a panel discussion during the Edinburgh Festival this week chaired by Alex Mascolo on the publication of her research into how women are working to create a more death-literate Scotland. 30-40 people joined us and the chat was much like a death cafe… wide-ranging, open, quickly deep and […]
On Friday 2 August, it was judgement day for Scotland’s funeral industry – literally. A team of judges were locked in a city centre hotel room throughout the long, hot, sunshine-filled day, pouring over piles of anonymised paperwork to debate views and arrive at decisions for the new Scottish Funeral Awards 2019. It was heads […]
Our chums at Good Life Good Death Good Grief have another year’s death inspired programme coming up at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Top of the pile for me, on 5 August is doctor/writer Kathryn Mannix, sharing her wisdom with readings from her book With The End in Mind. If you ever wanted comfort that you […]
This week, Perthshire school teacher Richard Selley called on the Scottish Parliament to move towards legalising assisted dying. Richard is living with Motor Neurone Disease or MND. There’s no way back for him. Like others in his shoes, he’s making plans to travel to Dignitas in Switzerland to take what little control he can and […]
Scottish Government is carrying out a consultation on funerals to try to tighten up on behaviours and standards in the industry. Responses are invited by 20 September 2019. The Government team invited views from funeral directors and others associated with funerals as a kicking off point and have come up with a draft Code of […]
It’s always a moment of joy for me when I see a note from my friends Sue Gill and Gilly Adams that they have another Rites of Passage school coming up. And every time, I want to go play again. I trained with Sue and Gilly back in the day when rites of passage were […]