Final Fling is part of the death movement… changes to the way society is approaching death and dying. We’re the outreach arm of OnlyHuman; a locally based funeral and ceremony service in central and west Scotland.
We’re part of this quiet revolution, a movement made of a number of groups and individuals that’s building community in our fragmented society. We have over 1,200 members who are individuals, interested in engaging with their own end of life planning decisions, actively planning on Final Fling using our free Life Planning Tools to record their thoughts, wishes, create a legacy. And we have members who feature in our growing Marketplace – folks who are interested in providing high quality services – sometimes new or alternative ideas – to people at time of need.
Our Founder, Barbara Chalmers, also set up a charity, A Quiet Revolution, to help fund ceremonies for families in need.
The death movement in the UK
We’re a member of the community in Scotland called Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, a membership alliance and cousin of Dying Matters who run an annual Awareness Week. We’re part of the Life Death Whatever network of activists. We’re friends of Living Well Dying Well who train death doulas and provide support to people who are dying – like offering free websites for people who are dying to connect with family and friends: What Matters Now.
We support the efforts of Dignity in Dying who promote Assisted Dying, known by the rubbish term Assisted Suicide in Scotland.
We collaborate with the Good Funeral Guide and have sponsored the category Most Outstanding Contribution to Understanding Death at the annual Good Funeral Awards… an event that celebrates high standards among those working in the funeral industry and promotes openness and celebrate the people who are setting the standards for the future.
Find out more About Us.
Films
- See our film offering top tips from experts on how to talk about death and thoughts about talking about death in the family, when children are involved.
- Hear our vox pops – films taken in the street – with folk talking about end of life and what they would like: funeral wishes, whether they’d shared their wishes, the sort of send off they would like, thoughts they have on funeral music, what they think of life after death, who has a Will.
Events
- Final Fling ran the first Death Cafe in Scotland ran them quarterly for several years.
- We run Death Meet-Ups to engage in all manner of discussions, from design innovation to co-creation workshops.
- We held a Design for Death symposium with Snook – an event for professionals to map what’s going on in the death movement among key service providers in Scotland.
- We organised the first Day of the Dead festival in Scotland in 2013.
- We speak at others’ events – Byw Nawr conference in Cardiff, Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2016, the launch of Clandonwood Natural Burial Ground.
- We run events – like Absent Friends Supper in 2017, a Big Conversation for Dying Matters Awareness Week in 2016
- We held The Thing About Funerals Is – a Death Meet-up and interactive exhibition at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art in 2017.
Be part of the Final Fling community
If you feel like we do and want to be part of the community, join the movement to improve how we ‘do death’:
- Follow this blog and our social media
- Contact us.
We’re happy to promote what you’re doing if it can help others. Email us.