Sacred Endings – A One Day Workshop

Sacred Endings – A One Day Workshop

A day to gently explore how we can approach death and funerals with greater awareness, care and meaning.

Together we will look at how to create a meaningful funeral, exploring the different options available including DIY funerals, direct cremations, the role of the celebrant, and how an end-of-life companion can support individuals and families during this tender time.

In the afternoon we will offer a short eulogy writing and sharing exercise, a reflective practice that gently invites you to become more comfortable with your own mortality while deepening appreciation for what you truly value in your life.

We will close the day by sharing simple end-of-life vigiling practices and a gentle sound journey.

Arrival: from 10:00am
Start: 10:30am
Lunch: grounding vegan soup will be shared
Close: by 5:00pm

A day of practical information, reflection and community as we open the conversation around death and sacred endings.

Your guides for the day…

Marisa Picardo

Marisa’s earlier career was as a qualified mental‑health nurse; she was registered and practiced for 28 years, working in both community and inpatient settings. She trained with Kristoffer Hughes on his Death Midwifery course, with William Bloom on Passing Over, Creating a Graceful Death, and Transfer of Consciousness, and with Felicity Warner on her Soul Midwives training. She also attended workshops with Stephen Jenkinson, who was her initial influence when she began this work. Marisa has served as a facilitator for Death Café Glastonbury. Previously, she volunteered at Weston Hospice as a companion and with Marie Curie as a helper and companion, providing emotional and practical support to adult in‑patients in their final days or hours of life at Musgrove Hospital. She completed her funeral celebrancy training with the Fellowship of Professional Celebrants in early 2015. Marisa strongly believes that people can reclaim these powerful rites of passage, and she will respectfully assist and accompany a dying person on their journey—whether at home, in a hospital, or in a hospice—and help create a funeral that is as individual as the person. She has attended many grief‑tending circles, both large and small, and enjoys being a participant and space‑holder. She also welcomes opportunities for a circle to be offered in the community, as this is a profoundly effective way of working with grief. www.rosemaryandyew.co.uk

Lucy Lord

Lucy is a Grief Recovery Specialist, grief tender, and the founder of the Sacred Death Centre in Glastonbury, a community organisation dedicated to supporting people through the thresholds of death, dying, and grief. Her work is rooted in the belief that grief is not a problem to be fixed, but a deep human process that deserves time, space, and reverence.

After working for many years in the corporate world, Lucy's life changed direction through a series of profound personal losses. These experiences brought her to the Grief Recovery Method, which became a pivotal turning point in her own healing and the foundation of the work she now share with others. Over the past years, Lucy has supported many individuals through this evidence-based programme, helping them to gently meet and integrate the emotional pain they have carried.

Recognising that how we die shapes how we grieve, Lucy trained with Felicity Warner as a Soul Midwife, deepening her understanding of the end-of-life journey and the importance of compassionate presence.

Her grief-tending work is further grounded in the teachings of Francis Weller, whose wisdom on community grief and the necessity of ritual informs her approach. His reminder that “grief and gratitude are two sides of the same coin” sits at the heart of her work. www.lucylord.co.uk