Lets Talk About Living is a campaign to get Birmingham talking about how we are living with serious illnesses and how we can work together as a community to lessen the isolation and anxiety felt by those facing death.
We are running workshops with people in hospices, nursing homes and hospitals to find out what is important to people who are living with dying. The stories are being shaped into films, theatre works, songs and poetry and dance performances. If you have a story you would like to tell, please email it to us. We will be publishing a book of selected stories in October. Anyone who submits a story will receive a free copy of the book.
A moving drama combining sadness, hope and ambition this rehearsed reading is the result of an innovative collaboration between Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice, St Giles Hospice, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Rosetta Life.
Read more about The Magical Glow of the Co Op
Night and day follows the lives, the highs and lows of six people living with life threatening illness and their carers as they face a life in front of death. The Film is being premiered in Birmingham as part of the Rosetta live festival and campaign ‘Let’s talk about Living’ We hope this campaign changes the way people think about living with dying and acknowledges the heroism at the heart of each individuals struggle with illness.” Lucinda Jarrett, Director Rosetta Life.
Read more about Night and Day
Rosetta Life is working in partnership with The Living Body Alliance, a group of dancers dedicated to developing movement practice in health care. We are running movement workshops at Helen Ley Respite Care Centre, Warwickshire, at John Taylor Hospice and at St Michaels Hospice, Herefordshire.
Read more about Movement in Still Life
Celebrating the stories of the dying and opening the possibility of celebrating death rites with the passion we currently pay tribute to birth rites.
Read more about The Big Conversation / A Time to Die, a Place to Remember
An exciting partnership project between the CBSO, Acorns hospice Walsall and Joseph Leckie Community Technology College is due to start in July 2009 and culminate in a public concert on 5th October, World Hospice week.
Read more about Song RoomsWe invite you to submit any stories you have from families who are living life at its ending. We also invite you to accompany these stories with photographs of places that are significant to people and that represent how and where they would like to be remembered.
At the end of the year we will publish a book of some of the images and photos submitted. We will send a free copy of the book to everyone who has an entry in it.
To send a story simply email us. If you have any imagery, drawings or photos that are important to your story you can attach them as files. Here a a selection of recently submitted stories, the full collection can be found on The Big Conversation page.
“In the summer of 2002, in my 57th year, I gaze into my mother’s eyes as she lies dying. They are partially open, the pupils highlighted by the window behind me, and as I speak to her I wonder if she is hearing me. The light in her eyes glints slightly, and perhaps I am seeing a slight movement in her eyelids as if she is trying to convey something to me. Might she be trying to say, I am very happy for you or, Oh Chap, how will you manage? A baby at your age? Aren’t three children enough? Because a few minutes ago, convinced that we were communicating, I wrote in pencil on a scrap of paper, we’re having another baby, and held it up for her to read.
Read the full story... about As she lies dyingI went over to Belfast from the Thursday of the week before last and stayed with my mum in the Marie Curie hospice, sleeping on a seat bed in her room. I had asked her what her image was of the after life …. Did she believe in God …. What would happen after she died? She said she thought of it like going to a Grannies house she never knew and that she would come to the door and “here I am” and the Granny would let her in. And also that she could be an angel hovering over people and watching them.
Read the full story... about Here I amMum became ill when she was 39 years old, i remember my first awareness of this, we had had a lovely day shopping. she bought a gold coloured top to wear . She was so beautiful, We came home and she tried it on to show my Grandma. She was so happy, i was so happy -then she fainted. i was 8yrs old. I thought she had died, i hadnt seen anyone faint before. I ran to the kitchen , as my grandma called an ambulance , and prayed as hard as i could for her to be alive. The ambulance took her away. Mum came home and was in hospital many many times for the next two years. Nobody really wanted to talk about it . I didnt know what was wrong with her , just that she was in a lot of pain, and used to cry every time she saw me.
Read the full story... about MumMy Mum died last year in March, she had mixed dementia for around 5 years and naturally became increasingly confused. She remembered the names of our family members but anyone relatively new became nameless or dear. Her weight dropped and dropped over the years. Dad looked after her throughout her illness which was tough for him as they were both in their 80’s. Dad would say that “she is my responsibility, I married her and I’ll look after her”. Mum began to fall over indoors and Dad would call out the paramedics as he couldn’t manage to pick her up himself. The last time it happened she was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with lung cancer and died within 8 days. I was with her when she died. We had no idea she had lung cancer, we put her weight loss down to the progression of Dementia and didn’t give anything else a thought.
Read the full story... about Mum and Dad
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