Events
Grief Awareness Week 2025 events
1st December 3pm to 5pm - Death Cafe for LGBTQIA+ communities at City Library, Newcastle. Free to attend - book your place here
3rd December 1pm to 3pm - Wheel of the Year Writing Circle at 17nineteen Sunderland. More information here
4th December 10am to 4pm - drop in at Billingham Library. Come along to talk to a whole range of people whose work supports people with death, dying, grief and loss.
5th December 11am to 12.30pm - walk and talk at Herrington Country Park. A gentle walk through the park, with the opportunity to talk about grief and loss. Email me to let me know you are coming karen3magpies@gmail.com
7th December 10.30am to 12.30pm - Death Cafe at Earthlings. Free to attend - book your place here
Wheel of the Year writing circle
The Wheel of the Year is a calendar of seasonal festivals that mark and celebrate the turning of the year. The focus is on connecting to the shifting energy of the seasons and working in harmony with it.
A writing circle is just a group of people who come together to spend time exploring ideas through writing. This Wheel of the Year Writing Circle is an opportunity to reconnect to nature, to ourselves, to the places we love and to each other.
Starting Wednesday 5th November from 1pm to 3pm at 17nineteen, Sunderland
Three Magpies Death Cafe at Earthlings
A Death Cafe is an opportunity to come together for an open discussion about the end of life, death, bereavement and grief. The aim is to increase our awareness of death in order to help us make the most of our finite lives. They are life-affirming conversations in a welcoming setting.
For the rest of 2025 I will be hosting monthly Death Cafes at Earthlings - the Healing Cafe in Newcastle upon Tyne. Dates and times are
Sunday 23rd November - 10.30am to 12.30pm
Sunday 7th December - 10.30am to 12.30pm
It is free to attend but places must be booked on Eventbrite.
Autumn Grief Circles at Shanti Bee
During Autumn 2025 I am collaborating with three other End of Life Doulas to hold Grief Circles at Shanti Bee in Newcastle upon Tyne. I will be working alongside Beth Coverdale, Charlotte Willoughby and Gloria Ferguson to create a space for people to join us to share experiences and express our grief together without trying to 'fix' each other.
Dates of the Grief Circles are
- 1st November 2pm - 4pm
- 29th November 2pm - 4pm
Anyone who is grieving is welcome. This is not just about being bereaved. We may experience grief around many types of loss or life change as well as the wider global issues that we see on our screens every day.
Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Latest news from Tending Three Magpies
Tending grief through singing
Tending grief through singing
Tending grief through singing
I went on a residential singing weekend run by folk band The Unthanks and found many unexpected opportunities to tend to my grief. I created a Substack post about it, exploring how as an end of life Doula, I need to deal with my own stuff before I can support anyone else, and why creativity is a key to accessing emotions.
Soul-stirring visitations
Tending grief through singing
Tending grief through singing
News! I am developing a new project to explore how we can tend our grief through dance. Using Border Morris as a starting framework, we will choreograph eight new dances to take us through the Wheel of the Year festivals, exploring how our grief changes. You are invited to get involved.
Shapes of Grief
Tending grief through singing
Why 'Tending Three Magpies'?
I have now completed the award winning Shapes of Grief training. This online training curated by Liz Gleeson brings together people from around the world who are leading the way in supporting people in their grief. This learning will be woven into my upcoming seasonal grief sessions.
Why 'Tending Three Magpies'?
Make sure your wishes are known
Why 'Tending Three Magpies'?
Why do I call my work Tending Three Magpies? It's all about the tidings the magpies might bring according to an old folk song.
Find out the full story by reading this article I published on Substack
Citizen Network
Make sure your wishes are known
Make sure your wishes are known
Citizen Network is a global non-profit cooperative movement formed to create a world where everyone matters, where everyone can be an equal citizen. For me this means equality in death as well as in life. As a Citizen Network Fellow I work collaboratively with colleagues around the world to come up with solutions to social inequalities.
Make sure your wishes are known
Make sure your wishes are known
Make sure your wishes are known
I have written an article about the process I went through after setting up my Lasting Power of Attorney. It was quite easy to do the legal bit. But then I had to let my Attorneys know what my wishes would be for my health, if I was unable to make decisions for myself. That was a lot harder! Read more here