carolinehjones

We don’t tend to associate end of life with goal setting, and, for some people, one of the benefits of being at this stage is to never have to have any more goals ever again, which is totally valid! However, having some clear ideas around what you do and don’t want to happen, in terms of medical treatment, but also about who you want to spend time with, if there are any places you’d like to visit, things you want to do, and working on a plan to make this happen, can be really helpful for you...

In 1998, my first child died, while I was 23+5 weeks pregnant. I will undoubtedly address the circumstances around that in another blog, but this one is about how I was able to finally honour her in 2023. We named her Alice Lorelei Bodkin, and she was buried at Ellenbrook Woodland Cemetery, during a very small, immediate family only funeral. This wasn’t really my choice, and small, intimate gatherings are not really me, but family members told me this was the way it was for babies, and I was...

Last week saw the culmination of an idea I had some time ago to hold a coffin decorating workshop to give people an opportunity to combine creativity with the chance to talk openly about death. Fate brought me into contact with Co-op funeral arranger, Kate Ramsey, from B. Johnson Funeral Care in Cadishead, and she loved the idea, and managed to secure support from her manager for the project. Weeks of planning and publicising later, and we ran the workshop in Eccles Library! It was a...