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parliament reception for absent friends
On 30th October 2014, Michael McMahon MSP hosted a lunchtime reception at the Scottish Parliament, introducing To Absent Friends, a people's festival of storytelling and remembrance.
Mark Hazelwood, Chief Executive of the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care introduced To Absent Friends, within the context of ongoing work to improve people’s experiences of death, dying and bereavement in Scotland.
Guests were treated to a presentation by award-winning Glasgow-based photographer Colin Gray, on his latest exhibition: Colin Gray: A journey with his parents through love, life and death. Ron Butlin, poet and writer, closed the event with a recital of his poem A recipe for whisky.
The event was well attended, including by MSPs Aileen McLeod, Jim Hume, Jamie McGrigor, Siobhan McMahon, Nanette Milne, Rhoda Grant, Graeme Day, Jim Edie and John Mason.
The reception also premiered an exhibition of the To Absent Friends: Essence of a Memory photo competition which ran as part of the Luminate Festival in October. Competition winners were: Under 18s: Emma Fraser; Aaron Hawthorne; Connie Sneddon; Over 18s: Laura Christie & Evelyn Smillie; Alan Dawson; Finola Scott; Morag Ewing
A gallery of all competition entrants can be viewed here: Essence of a Memory photo gallery.
Many guests also shared their own personal tributes to absent friends, which have been made into beautiful and moving tribute wall - view the gallery of tributes here.
Scotland remembers absent friends
A new festival remembering ordinary people who have died takes place across Scotland this week (1-7 November).
To Absent Friends, a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance is a mix of high profile events and also chances for everyone to join in some way. The festival is the brainchild of Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, an alliance of organisations and individuals working together to raise public awareness of ways of dealing with death, dying and bereavement.
Mark Hazelwood, Chief Executive of the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care, said: “People who have died remain a part of our lives – their stories are our stories, yet many Scottish traditions relating to the expression of loss and remembrance have faded over time.
"The To Absent Friends festival is about reigniting some of those traditions and creating new ones - giving people across Scotland an excuse to remember, to tell stories, to celebrate and to reminisce about people we love who have died. We are delighted that so many people and organisations are planning to join in the festival.”
The festival runs from 1st – 7th November. Many local grassroots activities are taking place, and in addition the festival is being supported and promoted through some high profile events and partnerships including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Rugby Union, the Luminate Festival of Creative Aging and Falkirk Football Club.
The festival is also encouraging people to share their memories and photos on social media with the hashtag #ToAbsentFriends.
Mark Hazelwood added: “In Scotland many of us struggle to know what to say or do around someone who’s been bereaved. All of us experience loss of some kind during our lives, and many people get something really positive from sharing memories and anecdotes of their dead loved ones”.
To find out more about To Absent Friends visit: www.toabsentfriends.org.uk
Hold your own Cafe of Reminiscence
Would you like to bring together friends, family or members of your community to reminisce and share anecdotes of dead loved ones? Why not run your own Café of Reminiscence?
Just Festival has been running popular monthly death cafés in Edinburgh for several months now, filling the Bohemian café Love Crumbs with the sound of strangers talking (and even laughing) about death.
Joining in the spirit of To Absent Friends, this November, they are planning to replace their usual death café with a Café of Reminiscence.
In partnership with Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief and Love Crumbs café, Just Festival have produced a conversation menu to help get the discussions started, and have shared the menu here so that people can print it off and use it for their own gatherings.
The menu is available to be downloaded here: Café of Reminiscence Menu
Guests might also wish to bring something with them that reminds them of a dead loved one - a ring, a book, a photo - to help get the stories started.
The menu can be printed off and used as it is, or used as the basis for you to create your own unique conversation menu. Structured in three 'courses' the menu asks a variety of questions, for example 'Does remembering always have to be sad?'; 'Are there any foods that evoke memories of people you love?' and 'If you had one last day with them what would you do?'
Essence of a Memory competition
Cigarette smoke. An unusual turn of phrase. The taste of ginger biscuits. The smell of chip fat frying. All kinds of things evoke memories of people who've died, and many of them come with an interesting anecdote.
How do you capture the essence of a memory? Can it be done in 50 well-chosen words and a photograph?
The To Absent Friends Essence of a Memory competition challenges people to do just that. It asks people to take a photo and write up to 50 words which together evoke a story or memory of someone they love who is dead.
The competition is being run by Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief as part of the Luminate Festival of Creative Ageing. Luminate celebrates our creative lives as we age, and includes new work, collaborations as well as international projects specially planned and programmed for the festival. There is growing evidence of the importance of creative activities to our wellbeing as we age, and Luminate wants to shine a light on the many opportunities that exist across Scotland.
The Essence of a Memory competition encourages entries from photographers and writers of all ages and abilities living in Scotland. The judging panel includes former Edinburgh Makar, Ron Butlin, and prizes will be presented by award-winning photographer Colin Gray. Winners will be invited to attend an exhibition of their work at a reception in the Scottish Parliament on 30th October.
Winning entries will form a photo exhibition to be displayed at Marie Curie Hospice Glasgow from 1-7 November as part of To Absent Friends, a people's festival of storytelling and remembrance. More information about the competition is available here: weblink.
small grants available
A small grants fund has been set up to support Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief members to participate in To Absent Friends, a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance, running 1-7 November 2014.
We are particularly keen to support small organisations to undertake local activities that provide public opportunities for storytelling and/or remembrance of people who have died.
Some ideas of relevant activities members might wish to undertake are listed on the To Absent Friends website, but we also recognise that approaches to this are likely to be varied, and therefore encourage creative and innovative ideas that are appropriate to local groups and communities.
The maximum sum available through the small grants programme is £250.
The deadline for receipt of completed applications is Friday 19th September 2014. However, in order to facilitate events which require advance planning, we will assess each application as soon as possible after it has been submitted. Where an application is successful we aim to provide funding as quickly as possible. Therefore there may be an advantage to getting your application in early.
A grant application form and guidance notes for applicants are provided below.
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