People Who Organized Living Wakes - Grief Loss Documentary

As we research our next documentary on grief, loss and end of life the current conversations emerging all around us are so helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me, just to share anything you feel is helpful or, your own personal experience. As some of you know I'm using the Listening Project podcast for research as we develop the film's core themes. I want this to make a difference if I possibly can. I learnt from the last doco that the storyline can significantly change from what you initially anticipate as you get deeper into the subject. Although I trained as an end of life doula for this project - that was more about quickly accessing information that should be broadly available to the wider community and it was indeed great training. But my belief is although some may wish to access a doula for end of life support, there is a wider socialization piece of work that the community must foster. We must not add a trendy new label to death and dying. This below storyline about living wakes is something my sister and I did consider for my mother but our broader family was not on the same page. So something to ponder. But reading James' living wake story on Valentines' Day - oh my how lovely. Slowly I suspect we are unravelling as a society the last taboo - death. It will be interesting however how the funeral industry truly responds, it is so 'product' driven, ugly word, I know. The medical profession also has a long way to go too. That said is is ours to reshape - for many it is entirely about love. Some however have complicated family relationships and strong feelings can emerge. The other thing is we are beginning to normalize the grief and loss journey we all go through but still a long way to go on this - because grief and loss impacts us all through many life stages - not just death. Education is critical to understanding our own inner worlds and the human experience. Most of us shouldn't need therapy to access information on what is a universal human experience. Workplaces must play a very important role in this. Food for thought.