Organised by NHS Lanarkshire. 1-5 November 2021, Coatbridge Locality Offices Administration Building and Long Stay Wards.
In the first week of November, Coathill Hospital, Coatbridge offers two activities to patients and staff who want to celebrate and honour the memory of lost loved ones.
Location 1: Coatbridge Locality Offices Administration Building
Staff and patients are invited to write the name of a deceased loved one on a butterfly shape and attach it to the perspex sheet. This display will grow during the week long event and will be visible to anyone entering the site. In the nearby Boardroom tea/coffee/biscuits and leaflets on grief/loss and bereavement will be available. There will also be someone on hand should anyone wish to have a 1-1 conversation about their grief.
Location 2: Outside the long stay wards
Patients and staff will be invited to plant a bulb in planters in remembrance of a deceased loved one. In the Spring, the planters will provide a colourful, living display that honours their memory.
Both locations will provide an opportunity to remember a loved one who has died, either during the COVID period or before. While the Butterfly Display will be temporary the planters will offer a more permanent remembrance in that the bulbs will produce flowers year after year.
Organised by North Argyll Carers Centre.
The Covid 19 pandemic has created terrible hardships and sadness for so many, and one of the most heartbreaking effects of the pandemic has been the inability of groups to meet together to celebrate the life of a loved one after their death.
North Argyll Carers Centre has organised this moving outdoor event to allow carers throughout the remote and isolated areas where we offer support to come together and remember the loved ones we have lost.
Bereaved carers from Argyll and the Isles will meet on a local beach, where they will write the names of the loved ones they have lost in the sand. We will watch together as the sea washes the names away with the incoming tide, as the sun goes down.
Bereaved carers from Oban, Mull, Iona, Coll and Tiree can take part in the event on the same evening, at a designated local beach, accompanied by support staff from North Argyll Carers Centre.
The whole event will be recorded on drone footage to create a lasting memory of film footage for all involved.
For more information and to join us at one of our locations please email Mairi: mairi@northargyllcarers.org.uk
Organised by St Andrew's High and Northesk Churches, Musselburgh
The congregations of St. Andrew’s High and Northesk Churches in Musselburgh are planning a number of “To Absent Friends” events, giving space for people to remember loved ones who have died. As church congregations we have accompanied many families through bereavement and the remembering of loved ones in funeral services during the pandemic. Our events are not exclusively designed for them, but they are at the forefront of our thoughts.
We hope to provide a place of hospitality, welcome, conversation and remembering, bearing in mind that there are many families who have not been able to mark the passing of the people closest to them in the way they would have wanted to.
Musselburgh is a coastal town, and the memory of the fishing industry which flourished here until fairly recently is still strong. We are planning an art intsallation of up to 1,000 origami boats. We are providing opportuntities for members of the community to make boats, which will then be displayed in our two churches.
Participants will be invited to write names or memories on their boats. We will use them to make an art installation in both churches. On Saturday 30th October there will be an unveiling ceremony, at the time of the churches’ coffee mornings.
On Sunday 31st October at 2:30 p.m. we will hold a Remembering Service entitled “Love and Loss” in Northesk Church. This is an event open to the whole community, and specific invitations will be sent to every family that we have conducted funeral services for in 2020 and 2021. This is an opportunity for those who wish to place ther remembering within a context of faith and prayer, and to engage in a symbolic act of remembrance. Hospitality will be provided after the service, to give people time to be together, share their memories and support one another.
An exhibition by Glasgow Association for Mental Health and The Open Museum. Glasgow Green. Railings outside the front entrance to the People’s Palace museum on Glasgow Green from 5-7 November.
This exhibition features photographs of objects that remind people of loved ones who have died – for instance an ornament from someone’s mantelpiece or someone’s favourite pair of shoes. The images will be accompanied by text that explains the important memories held by the objects.
Ancaster House Care Home are inviting residents and families to come together to remember and celebrate people who have died over the last year.
Residents will choose entertainment, songs and hymns, and gather to celebrate the life and joy that others have given.
“Hearts of Thought” hearts will be available for all in attendance to write on, to give hope, celebrate life, and remember. These hearts will be made from wood, varnished and placed on a Wall of Life within the Care Home.
Photo Credit: Element5 Digital