Watch or read a conversation about what dying is really like, and how best to plan for a good death, with Jane and Dr Kathryn Mannix, palliative care doctor and author of ‘With the End in Mind’
Read MoreDuring Dying Matters week, I was delighted to be asked to post about just how you really DO plan – here are some pointers to get you going on your plan for the end of life. Even more essential now in these days of the pandemic.
Read MoreSylvia was becoming more and more frail. It was clear that, though in good spirits, her body was nearing the end of her life. She kept having visits to hospital, and had recently had a fall which had precipitated one of these. But how on earth do we talk with someone who is dying? If…
Read MoreHave you noticed we often use euphemisms about death? In my last blog on this, just recently I was advocating ‘telling it like it is’, and using words such as death, dying, die. But the fact is, when you come to meet someone whom you know probably has only weeks to live, is it really…
Read MoreAbundance. Dying. End of Life. Plentifulness. Not words you would normally think of together. But there’s often an abundance of laughter on my Before I Go group programmes and workshops. There’s plentiful amounts of stories, some amusing, some poignant, others educational. Then there’s also fear and anxiety and concern, more traditionally words associated with death and dying.…
Read MoreThank God he’d stopped that awful rattling sound. Now his breaths were even, but with increasingly longer gaps in between. I knew this could go on for some time, but I was pretty surprised when ten minutes later, the gap just went on – and on, and on and on. And that moment – of…
Read MoreLife, it could be argued, is loss made manifest. From the moment a child is born, there are moments of loss – loss of who they were as a baby, a toddler, a young teenager. It continues into older age, with loss of interest in what fascinated us when younger, loss of energy for some,…
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