Remembrance Events in Liverpool

28-29th November 2015

Our Day of the Dead celebrations are taking place this weekend in Liverpool City Centre at the Central Library and World Museum. Over the road at St George’s Hall, you can also pay your respects and view the beautiful poppy installation, Weeping Window, which will be on public display until January 17.

Photograph taken from Liverpool Echo

Remembering the dead can be a community experience, and although it may not appear to be everybody’s cup of tea, around 150,000 people came to see the poppies at St George's Hall in the first week they went on show. This astounding number is more than all of the people who saw the Weeping Window installation on show at a Northumberland museum over seven weeks.

Paul Cummins, who created the sculpture with designer Tom Piper, paid tribute to the people of Liverpool in a letter to the ECHO. He said: “I was so overwhelmed and delighted by the impressive display of Weeping Window at St George’s Hall. I was especially taken aback at the way that people of Liverpool have taken the installation to heart, showcasing their appreciation for the project and the install of Weeping Window itself.”

Weeping Window initially formed part of the larger installation, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, which was on display at the Tower of London in 2014. Every ceramic flower represents a life lost by British and Commonwealth forces in WWI.

The display at the Tower of London

Photograph taken from Defence Imagery MOD

So if you’re in the city this weekend to see the Weeping Window, do a bit of shopping or visit one of the many attractions Liverpool has to offer – then call into Liverpool Central Library or the World Museum. Keeping the memory of late loved ones alive is a positive way to deal with loss. We don’t talk about the lives of the dead comfortably enough, and just because they’re gone from our view, doesn’t mean they are gone from our hearts.

Photo from The Bucket Project 

Bring along a photograph for our Day of the Dead altar at either event and we’ll have some frames available for you to use. Take time to personalise yours at our special craft station. If you haven’t got a photo we can use, you and any children you bring, may like to draw a picture, colour in or just write a few words. 

Photo from The Bucket Project 

Day of the Dead "Mexico" Celebrations

November 2015

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a Mexican holiday typically celebrated on 1st and 2nd November. The purpose of these days is to celebrate and remember those that have died. Too often, we don't get the chance to talk about our loved ones who have passed, as some people shy away from what they perceive to be "morbid." Keeping the memory alive of those important to us can help with the grieving process, no matter how long it has been. We learn to live with our grief and trying to forget about the dead doesn't often help. We provide a safe space to remember, chat and leave a memorial photograph on our beautifully decorated altar.

Photograph from our November 2014 celebration

The tradition of honouring our ancestors and remembering the dead has a long standing history. All Souls' and All Saints' Days are observed on the same dates as the Day of the Dead. In modern times, people continue to create colourful altars adorned with photographs of departed loved ones, paper flowers, decorated skulls, candles and offerings of food that the deceased enjoyed whilst saying nice things and sharing happy stories of the deceased.

Our hand-decorated sugar skulls, mug and snow globe

These events help recognise that death is a natural part of the human experience; a continuum with birth, childhood and growing up. On these days, the dead re-join the community to share in the celebrations with their loved ones. We want to remember the dead throughout the year and will be organising a number of events at various locations.

Our next Day of the Dead celebrations are connected to Mexico. The prestigious venues have either a recent exhibition, or have just had one linked to Mexico. Recently, the World Museum was the only UK location to host the Mayas exhibition - you can find images of the fascinating objects that were on display here: Mayas: revelation of an endless time.

Liverpool Central Library are hosting Frida and Me: an exhibition about Frida Kahlo, who died in 1954 at the age of 47, and who is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Using Frida’s self-portrait as the main axis and guide, children will be able to question themselves about notions of their own life, and while playing, can get involved in several notions of art.

Both celebrations are completely free and suitable for all ages. These events could be a useful way of talking about death with children in a positive and friendly atmosphere with tools to help and direct your conversations. 

The first Day of the Dead event is on Saturday 28th November 2015 at Liverpool Central Library from 1-3pm.

Liverpool Central Library

Photograph taken from Wikipedia

The second event is on Sunday 29th November 2015 at the World Museum from 2-4pm.

World Museum Liverpool

Photograph taken from Wikipedia

Alongside our colourful altar will be a craft stall where you can decorate your own frame. Bring along a photograph or send us one in advance and we'll print it for you. We'd love it if you would also share a story about the person who died to accompany their photograph. Please email Rachael for more information.

Decorated frames on our beautiful altar

End of Year Four!

 

Having finished our fourth year of engaging the community about death, dying and loss and excitedly entering our fifth; we are proud to present The Bucket Project Annual Report 2014 to 2015 We’ve learned some lessons and built on successes over the past twelve months; utilising data from a number of surveys, research and direct experience.

Front cover of our report

 

We’ve launched new tools for engagement, a practical guide and thought provoking posters, which have all been well received. We have more ideas than time to accomplish them so prioritising our activities has become key. Our Day of the Dead celebrations continue to be the most popular events and will be something we will roll out throughout the year, as our primary method of engagement.

 

Some of our tools, posters and decorations

 

Whilst Dying Matters Week 2015 had huge support from partners and members, most events were not as well attended as we had hoped. We have identified potential problem areas and have developed solutions.

Death and dying is moving up the agenda of national and local government. Liverpool has adopted the Dying Well Community Charter, Public Health are advocating new approaches to end of life care and Compassionate Communities is being developed alongside Healthy Cities. We aim to continue working with the right people in key positions to keep the topic of death alive.

You can read the report in full here: The Bucket Project Annual Report 2014 to 2015 or on the Downloads page.

So Long, Farewell...

I (Amy) am writing today to say goodbye to The Bucket Project and our supporters; I am moving on to another role within the Marie Curie Hospice. It has been a privilege to work on this project and I have learned so much. I have met so many interesting people this past year and a half and would like to thank each and every one of you for discussing such a difficult topic with me and sharing your experiences.

 

The work the project undertakes is so important because it is essential that people try and plan for the future and be able to discuss the subjects of death, dying and loss. Whilst I am sad to be leaving, I am sure that whoever takes my place will bring their own creativity, flair and imagination to help progress the project.

 

Here are some of my favourite moments:

 

  

 

 

 

 

Thank you for this experience and remember, help keep the topic of death alive in Liverpool!

Photograph Appeal

 

The Bucket Project will be touring their Day of the Dead Celebration around Liverpool and would like you to contribute a photo of your late loved one. Add to our altar of touching pictures and memories and ensure your loved one is remembered.

 

We want to encourage people to share their happy memories of departed loved ones and remember them for the person they were. We shouldn’t be afraid to remember the good times after someone close to us dies, we should cherish the time we did have with them.

 

Our Day of the Dead Celebrations provide a comfortable space in a social setting where people we have loved and lost can be discussed freely. Participant have said others can block conversations about those who have died, for fear of being morbid or depressing. When we gather to celebrate lives that have passed, it is with a feeling of peace and nostalgia blanketed in heart-warming memories.

 

The Day of the Dead altars are colourful and bright, decorated with paper flowers and patterned skulls. You can design your own frame or send us your picture and we’ll frame it for you. We do ask that you also send us the person’s name and a little bit about them to go on the back of the frame. To find out when our next events take place, become a member of The Bucket Project and receive regular updates, by simply sending us your email address.

 

A touching photograph brought to our November
Day of the Dead Celebration

A tribute written on the frame

If you would like to make a contribution to our Day of the Dead altar, you can email your photographs and stories to rachael.mckindley@mariecurie.org.uk. Alternatively you can post, or drop off, a copy of your photo with text, to:

 

The Bucket Project
Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool
Speke Road
Woolton
Liverpool
L25 8QA

 

Please do not send us original photographs as we may not be able to return them to you.

Analysis of 4ft Lettering: Dying Matters 2014

After Dying Matters Awareness Week 2014, The Marie Curie Institute undertook an analysis of our display at The Walker Art Gallery. Members of the public were invited to ‘Write or draw what symbolises ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ to you on our Hollywood style lettering’. The aim of the analysis was to gain an insight into peoples’ perceptions of death (and life) in order to inform public engagement techniques to normalise the topic of ‘death’.

 

Here are some excerpts from the findings:

Background

Within the context of Western Society, advances in medical science have simultaneously reduced the incidence of childhood and early adult deaths and extended life expectancy. One result of such advances has therefore been to delay personal experiences of death and dying into midlife (House of Commons Health Committee, 2015). Further, since the foundation of the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1948, an increasingly paternal, medicalisation of death and dying has resulted in more deaths now commonly occurring in a hospital setting, which has further removed ‘death’ and ‘dying’ from general society (House of Commons Health Committee, 2015; Mellor and Shilling, 1993).

 

The philosophical underpinnings of the meaning of 'life' and 'death' have been much debated over time. 'Meaning of life' seeks to understand the purpose of human existence within a broader metaphysical context over and above individual human contributions (Horne, 2013). Given the shift towards an individualistic focus this makes ‘meaning of life’ contemplations difficult in a traditionalist/religious vacuum. ‘Meaning in life’ on the other hand could be expressed in terms of subjective views that individuals' lives have purpose through the activities undertaken, which may provide pleasure and happiness (Wolf, 1982; Sigrist, 2015).

 

In May 2014, the National Museums Liverpool (NML) hosted an interactive, public exhibition, consisting of individual lettering, spelling ‘LIFE’ and ‘DEATH’. Members of the public were invited to write comments directly on to the lettering and these comments and illustrations were recorded verbatim and made available to the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (MCPCIL) at the University of Liverpool to enable a form of qualitative Content Analysis of these public contributions to be undertaken.

 

The aim of this report is to provide a qualitative analysis of these contributions (written and illustration) in order to gain an insight into peoples’ perceptions of death (and life) with the purpose of informing future public engagement techniques to ‘normalise’ the topic of ‘death’. As previously discussed, it is envisaged that contributions will be more focused on ‘meaning in life’ than ‘meaning of life’. Further, those contributions to ‘what symbolises ‘life’’ will include but may not be limited to: purposefulness; happiness; self-actualisation; youthfulness; and health. Similarly, it is envisaged those contributions to ‘what symbolises ‘death’’ will include but may not be limited to: ambiguity; fear; frailty/old age.

Engaging the public

The Bucket Project representatives were present for an hour or more each day that the exhibition was active and they engaged in conversations with the public about the Bucket Project, Dying Matters and the lettering display. They gave a background to the project and inquired whether people would like to contribute. Other people also contributed to the display without personally talking to the representatives, though they may have taken leaflets/newsletters from the display stand.

The results of this content analysis concur with the hypothesis in that the written contributions largely related to ‘meaning in life’ over ‘meaning of life’ reflecting a priority of purpose for individuals over broader human existence perspectives. This focus on the ‘self’ was evident by the significant proportion of written contributions which reflected individuals’ names. Whilst these were reflected on both ‘life’ and ‘death’ lettering they were more frequently noted on the latter, which may support the individualistic ‘meaning in life’ perceptions in a reduced traditionalist/religious framework.

 

Similarly the frequency of the acronyms ‘YOLO’ (i.e. You Only Live Once) on both lettering and ‘YODO’ (i.e. You Only Die Once) on ‘death’ lettering could provide additional support for a shift of focus to ‘meaning in life’, prioritising ‘life’ over ‘death’. These acronyms are examples of the type of language adopted largely within more recent technological communication, and are arguably more synonymous with younger individuals.

A proposed youthful demographic of a proportion of the participants to this exhibition is also supported via the use of ‘emoji’ and ‘hashtag’ punctuation across both ‘life’ and ‘death’ lettering which again reflect more recent language style adopted largely within technological communications.
The hypothesis that written contributions to ‘life’ lettering would incorporate purposefulness, happiness, and self-actualisation comments is also supported by this data analysis. Those written contributions relating to ‘happiness’ were the most frequently reported category within this lettering. ‘Purposefulness’ and ‘self-actualisation’ were largely reflected within the category entitled, ‘purpose to life’. Examples include: ‘Be, all, you can possibly, be’; ‘Fullfill your life to the fullest’; ‘Life is all about people - you are who you spend time with’.  The remaining significant category within the ‘life’ lettering related to ‘Friends/Family’. Within the literature connectedness to others is subsumed within descriptions of potential purposeful activities that may provide happiness. Therefore this category provides additional support that the current focus is towards individualist ‘meaning in life’ perspectives incorporating purposefulness, happiness, and self-actualisation ideologies.

 

Contrary to our earlier hypothesis, however, neither ‘youthfulness’ nor ‘health’ were represented within the written contributions provided for the ‘life’ lettering. However, given that the demographic of the visitors to this exhibition may have included a significant proportion of young people this may explain why these categories did not feature, as the young are synonymous with ‘youthfulness’ and ‘health’, the mindfulness of which may only be encountered when these natural qualities start to ebb.
Whilst the category representing ‘unclassified’ written contributions was reflected within both the ‘life’ and ‘death’ lettering, it was significantly represented in the latter (i.e. 10% - 3 times greater representation within ‘death’ than ‘life’ lettering). Examples of these written contributions include: ‘Look out for drowning people! Lol’; ‘Pomegranete    Izzy’; ‘To enjoy your death... After all they have cookies! Eve S THS’. As these examples show, these comments are diverse and ambiguous in meaning. It could be argued that the greater frequency of this category of comments within the ‘death’ lettering reflects public ambiguity about death and dying, in line with aforementioned literature, and is therefore supportive of the hypothesis that ambiguity will be a feature within the written contributions reflecting perceptions about ‘death’.

Interestingly, however, the illustrations accompanying some of the written contributions followed more traditional categorisation, whereby ‘life’ was depicted by  ‘positivity’ (i.e. chick, happy face, smile, the sun) and ‘love’ (i.e. heart, kiss, people) whilst ‘death’ illustrations represented traditional death imagery (i.e. skull, bomb, flower, ghost), love (i.e. broken heart, heart, people) and sadness (i.e. sad face). Whilst imagery can promote universal messages and meaning, specific detail regarding such meaning can be compromised and limited by the artists’ abilities, which may explain the basic illustrations and their more traditional nature in relative comparison to the written contributions.

Conclusions

In support of the aforementioned literature, the analyses concur that the written contributions focused more so upon ‘meaning in life’ over ‘meaning of life’, suggestive of a reduced focus upon traditional/religious frameworks to support existential meaning. Further, those contributions to ‘what symbolises ‘life’’ included expected categories of: purposefulness; happiness; and self-actualisation. Similarly, those contributions to ‘what symbolises ‘death’’ included ‘ambiguity’. Contrary to our earlier hypothesis neither ‘fear’ nor ‘frailty/old age’ were representative categories within the contributions provided for the ‘death’ lettering. However, comments with more negative connotations were recorded within these contributions.

These results suggest support for the previously argued theory regarding the privatisation of death and dying and ensuing individualist perception and experience afforded death and dying. Future public engagement exercises should aim to reduce the ambiguity regarding death and dying and to find ways to initiate social discourse.

 

For more information on this analysis email amy.king@mariecurie.org.uk

Make Your Wishes Known

 

 

Whilst listening to a popular radio programme, I heard a feature that indicated the amount of organ donors has decreased for the first time in a number of years. I thought that it would be helpful to include some of the information we have recently produced and collated from a number of leading sources on organ donation. It is important to make your wishes known and to record them or you may not be able to donate, even if you want to.

 

 

Excerpts from our ‘5 Things To Do Before You Die’ booklet:

 

Modern medicine has made it possible for us to donate healthy organs and tissue to those in need after we have died. Transplants depend on the generosity of donors and their families who are willing to donate to enhance the quality of someone else’s life. It is possible that one donor can save or improve the lives of a number of people.

 

Why it is important to make a decision

Deciding whether or not to become an organ and/or tissue donor is an important personal decision. If you think this is something you would like to do, it is a good idea to add your name to the organ donor register and share your decision with close relatives or friends. If you are not registered, when you die, your next of kin will be asked whether you would have wanted to be a donor so it is essential that they understand your wishes.

 

By joining the register you are giving legal consent to the use of your organs and tissue for transplantation after your death if you are considered as a viable donor.

 

Exceptions

There are certain exceptions that may prevent you from becoming an organ donor, such as being diagnosed with HIV or CJD (a brain condition). If you have other medical conditions you can still join the register and a doctor will determine if your organs are suitable for donation. Becoming part of the register does not necessarily mean you will become a donor as this depends on the viability of the organs and circumstances of death. But the more people that join the register, the higher the chances of helping someone in need.

 

It is possible for you to specify which organs you are willing to donate if there are certain elements you are not comfortable with them taking. You must tick the appropriate boxes on the organ donor registration form or donor card in these circumstances. In the case of cornea donation there is currently an upper age limit of 80 years, and for the donation of heart valves and tendons there is an age limit of 60 years. However, there is no upper age limit for joining the register to donate other organs and tissue, viability is determined by condition.

 

You can join the NHS Organ Donor Register by:

 

• Filling in a form online at www.organdonation.nhs.uk
• Calling the NHS Donor Line on 0300 123 23 23
(lines are open 24 hours a day all year, charged at your local rate)
• Text SAVE to 62323

 

You can also join when you:

• Register for a driving license
• Register at a GP surgery
• Register for a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)
• Apply for a Boots Advantage Card

 

Make sure your family and loved ones are aware of your decision.

 

For more in-depth information, please visit the NHS Organ Donation website listed above. There is a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions and guidance on how to join.