Inspiring Community Winner - Pushing Up the Daisies
Inspiring Community Winner - Pushing Up the Daisies
The last couple of months have been busy ones for Pushing Up the Daisies. We’ve just finished our ninth online After the Last Breath course, meeting with kindred spirits from all over Scotland and beyond at the live sessions held every three weeks. We will be running the course again in the autumn. Just as the course came to an end we launched on our website a modular version of it for those who prefer to learn on their own and at their own pace.
The members of our Daisy Chain are volunteers who have completed the online course and can give people guidance on their options when someone dies and share their local knowledge, for example of burial grounds,
crematoria and funeral directors. They meet with people individually to do this and also hold ‘Round The Kitchen Table Sessions’. Someone who supports the work of Pushing Up the Daisies invites friends to come to their home for a few hours. The Daisy Chain member introduces what is possible during what we call the ‘Daisy Days’ - the time between a person’s death and their burial or cremation. The person hosting the session provides cake, and possibly also soup, to fuel conversation, and those attending go away with new ideas to discuss with their families and friends. If you would like to host a Round the Kitchen Table session, get in touch through our website and we will connect you to a local Daisy Chain member.
Daisy Chain members get together once a month at lunchtime for the Daisy Diner. Here they can catch up with other members and review a topic. This month the discussion was about the additional stresses on everyone involved when someone dies unexpectedly. Did you know that medical staff and police have particular procedures to follow when a death is unexpected? This can mean that relatives and friends are not able to see the person, or have access to the place where they died, for several days. Being aware of this may not make it any easier to deal with, but it may help people to be better prepared to look after themselves if it should happen.
Hot off the press this month is a book, ‘Slow Down When Someone Dies', written by two of our trustees, Kate Clark and Lin Carruthers. Lin and Kate are making plans to speak about the book and the work of Pushing Up the Daisies during Demystifying Death Week. They will meet with people in Dundee, Helensburgh, Irvine, East Kilbride, Edinburgh and more. “Because we are a national charity, much of our contact with people is, of necessity, online and it is wonderful to have the chance to meet people in person. We are really looking forward to it,” they say. Maybe they will see you there!
Find out more at PUD's website and Facebook page.
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