Monday June 16, 2025

A year now. Tia is working on the book, Island Life and Death. She is fired up about it, trying out some new ways of writing. Not yet sure if they will ‘work’ but – experimenting. There is currently a campaign around funding for Mountbatten. When the beloved hospice is threatened, Islanders mobilise, heartily and rapidly. In less than a week a petition with 7000 signatures. This story is now part of the book, under the heading, ‘Breaking News’. What will happen? Hopefully Mountbatten will emerge all the stronger. But so far it is a story about community resilience and cohesion, of a Tiny Public in action. Everyone is working hard around the issue and they are organised. And the cause is vitally important.

Two weeks ago Tia was in Bergen for the Sounding Relation project and to observe the IMAGINE project in action. There is a blog about IMAGINE here. Read about how very young children IMAGINE what care can look like…..

Saturday May 25, 2024

Tia’s colleague and Advisor to Island Life and Death, Wolfgang Schmid has premiered a film he made with Professor Jill Halstead. The two, from Bergen University, collaborated on this film that tells the story of one woman, ‘Kari’ and one feature of her musical biography. Tia was very happy to be in Bergen for the premier, part of the Bergen International Festival.

Wednesday May 15, 2024

Tia observed and participated in the Walk the Wight event on Sunday May 12. The largest event of its kind in Europe it drew 9500 walkers and raised 455,000 pounds for Mountbatten. It was an inspiring day and also full of joy, respect and remembrance.

Thursday April 18,2024

Tia is back at Mountbatten for the second time in 2024. This week more interviews with some very inspiring folks and a fantastic tutorial on the history of fund raising here in the 1990s from a former Mountbatten Fund Raising Director. More new songs from Ray. More time in the amazing Cafe, a perfect setting for the earliest planning work for the book to come. And – it was the one year anniversary of the arrival of Oscar – the Hospice Cat…

Friday December 15, 2023

Tia was at Mountbatten in October (more on that anon) and, most recently, last week. The hospice was bedecked with festive decorations – trees, lights, greenery and much more. There was music. But who was it at the Moody Blues piano this time…..?

Friday September 8, 2023. The ‘Secret’ Art Exhibit in Mountbatten’s Gardens.

Tia was back at Mountbatten last week. She spoke to more people about their experiences in relation to the hospice. She is thankful to all of the folks she spoke with in interviews for their willingness to share and to help her understand what the hospice means, what it does. She was struck by their courage and creativity and is looking forward to writing about that soon. Tia is also increasingly exploring the role played by Mountbatten’s hundreds of volunteers – what they do and give, their motivations, their dedication. And she she met with one of the garden volunteers who very generously took her on not one but three tours of the grounds, where she found what might be Mountbatten’s most ‘secret’ art installation…..

Tuesday August 1, 2023. Photo essay or Radio Play? Food of Love…

Tia’s been back twice since the last diary entry. It’s been a busy time since she’s also been to Bergen to work with Wolfgang Schmid. She has begun the interview phase of the project and she was able to be present for the first Mountbatten Folk Group meeting in May. As part of the Care for Music project which finished on May 31, she met with Singer-Songwriter, Ray, to speak with him about his collaboration with Nordoff Robbins music therapist Fraser Simpson, musical companionship, and song-writing as a ‘layered’ process. This time, last week at the end of July, Tia attended the Mountbatten Choir’s Summer Showcase Concert (more on that to follow), met with two of the folk musicians to speak about their experiences playing in the wards, met again with Ray, and met briefly with a visiting, celebrity, musician who offered a concert in the John Cheverton Centre. She conducted more interviews. And she spent a lot of time in the Mountbatten Cafe. There is a photo-essay, or is it a quasi-radio play (?), about the Cafe here.

Saturday April 8, 2023. Photo Essay, at the turning point between two projects…

Week of March 27, the Care for Music Team travelled to Newport, Isle of Wight for the final major event associated with the project, the Care for Music Festival. We have an essay about that on the Care for Music Website and you can find it here. The Festival marked the turning point between Care for Music and this project, Island Life and Death. Once again Tia was impressed with the power of organisational symbolism at Mountbatten – and you can find a photo essay on that topic here. She returns in May to begin interviews and to continue the ethnography.

Tuesday March 21, 2023. The first day of spring and time for a Festival. Entry 10.

We are preparing for the Care for Music Festival at Mountbatten next week. A seminar, a film/discussion, a cabaret evening with the Mountbatten Community Choir, and a workshop on ‘lounge music for caring settings’. And there is a new essay on the Care for Music website about the work of Wolfgang Schmid’s kantele at the Norwegian hospice. So, a lot happening. Meanwhile, today is the vernal equinox – the first day of Spring. In the UK it began yesterday at 9.24pm. The daffodils are in full bloom in Devon. It is a time of hopefulness and rebirth…And, having recently listened to Nigel Hartley’s podcast about the need to talk a lot more about dying (and the need to enrich vocabularies for doing so) Tia is remembering a different ‘first day of spring’ back in 1991…

Tuesday January 31, 2023. Preparing for the Care for Music Festival in March at Mountbatten, moving into the data collection phases, and still thinking about the material culture of music, memory and – in a new essay on these pages – the ‘social lives’ of musical instruments Entry 9.

The Care for Music Project is winding up in June and as a final and festive event we’re preparing for a Festival on the theme of care and music at Mountbatten. We’re still on the hunt for volunteer pianists to take part in a workshop on playing ‘lounge piano’ in caring settings. Jill Halstead and Wolfgang Schmid’s film, Last(ing) Music will receive its World Premier, we’ll offer a seminar on project findings, and the Mountbatten Choir will host a cabaret event in which, we very much hope, we’ll hear Mountbatten CEO, Nigel Hartley, sing once again.…

Meanwhile, Island Life and Death moves into data-collection phase now that the application for ethics has been approved. And the new essay on instruments is here.

Friday January 20, 2023, A choir rehearsal, a concert, Smudgie the donkey, an exhibit, planning and three kinds of warmth, Entry 8

Tia was at Mountbatten last week. Her visit included a trip to the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary where she chatted with staff about the visits that Donkeys make to places of care (including a recent visit to Mountbatten). Thursday evening Tia attended a concert and art exhibition at the Hospice. The concert featured big band, Solent Swing as well as a wonderful guitar duo called Sounds Easy. It was also heart-warming to see some of the residential patients also attending and enjoying. The art exhibit featured work by local artist Vicki Golden – dream-like works depicting scenes of flying, flowers, cats, the sea and stars. It also featured art by Mountbatten staff and volunteers which really drew out into relief the tremendous, and hitherto possibly hidden, talents that are part of Mountbatten. There were landscapes, flowers, fantastic Tolkein-esque towers, abstracts and portraits… It was also lovely to catch up with Communications Head, Matt White and Events Coordinator Mary Banks and Mountbatten Community Artist, Marion Tasker. On Wednesday evening, Tia took part in the choir rehearsal for her third time (and met Dr Kenneth Bayley from the Open University and a member of the Choir who’s embarking on research around the theme of choral singing and wellbeing – clearly synergies there for sure). Island Life and Death got official ethics approval from the University of Exeter this week so the project will move soon into the data collection phase. In short, a lot happening including the Care for Music Festival, a series of events to be held at Mountbatten, March 28-30. The Festival will include a special session on playing ‘lounge piano’ led by music therapist Fraser Simpson. And to celebrate the Mountbatten grand piano, Tia has just posted an essay on warmth, pianos (the very special, Moody Blues piano at Mountbatten), and energy costs. 

Friday January 6, 2023, on the New Year, and positivity, Entry 7

A quiet time of year and a good time for further reading and reflection. Tia continues to work with Gary and Wolfgang on Care for Music. Wolfgang has just completed a film, Last(ing) Music, with Advisory Board Member, Jill Halstead, about music in end of life and we have plans to screen this work at Mountbatten in March. The draft book manuscript, Caring for Music, has now grown to over 100,000 words… The next phase is going involve a lot of tightening up. 

And, of course, it is a New Year. This is typically a time when people think about making positive changes in their lives. It is a time for resolutions, resets, fresh starts. It is also the time of year when the death rate is at its highest…And so, there is a new essay on this blog about positivity – at end of life. 

Monday November 21, 2022, on the eve of the National Hospice Conference, Entry 6

Tia continues with background research. That means examining websites, re-watching (for what might be the fourth time) Steven Eastwood’s beautiful and honest documentary film about Mountbatten, Island, and reading. She has been reading information about end of life, hospices, bereavement, and care on national and international websites. And she has been reading historical sources on death, dying and bereavement. That reading includes late 19^th century New England novelist Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story, Miss Tempy’s Watchers and there is a new essay on this blog here about that story: Mountbatten and me, part two: Realistic hoping at the end of life

Wednesday October 26, 2022, Entry 5

Tia spent last week at the Hospice. She met with staff. She sang with the choir. She wandered around Newport speaking with people in various cafés, including God’s Providence House. “God’s Providence”: In the 16^thcentury, when the Plague arrived on Isle of Wight, this was the only house to be spared, hence the name.

Tia also spent a lot of time in another lovely café – Mountbatten’s own She sat there watching autumn leaves drift down to the deck the in the hospice garden (and ate some excellent sandwiches by the way…). In fact, Tia spent a lot of time just sitting – in one of the very many, very comfortable, brightly coloured armchairs….

The chairs have slightly rounded backs which makes them particularly snug. They’re also high-backed to create some private space if that’s desired. 

Tia realises that the way she’s describing the hospice makes it sound a bit like a nice hotel. Which is exactly what it felt like – at one level. On Thursday morning when music therapist Fraser Simpson offered an open music session, sitting at the grand piano, took requests, offered many old favourites, it was a positive haven. People (visitors, staff, perhaps residents – Tia does not know who was whom – and that is part of the story) sat at ease, drank cups of tea and coffee, chatted, sang, hummed. There was even someone offering manicures to residents and day patients ….

This time, while the research ethics application for Island Life and Death is pending, Tia was visiting under the auspices of the Care for Music project, along with Gary Ansdell. She was not ‘collecting data’ – just visiting and absorbing atmosphere, having already explored the building courtesy of Mountbatten’s marvellous 3D online tour. While there, Tia, Fraser, and Gary also convened an online Care for Music workshop as part of the Annual Mountbatten Conference, the theme of which this year was, “The True Value of Hospices. Celebrating the Impact of Kindness and Community.”

For Tia, one of the highlights of this visit was the recently opened, ‘Mountbatten and Me’ exhibit. To celebrate 45 years of hospice care on the Isle of Wight and Southampton, Mountbatten commissioned photographer Julian Winslow to take 300+ photographic portraits of the varied members of the Hospice community. The images are remarkable. They are portraits of staff, patients, family, supporters, friends, volunteers… no captions, no explanations, no context, no classification scheme….just beautiful, individual faces populating the walls of the hospice – and that means all the walls, if you follow the exhibit, you will follow it through the entire building. This experience has prompted Tia to write another essay for this blog, “Mountbatten and Me.” 

Thursday October 13, 2022, Entry 4

A few weeks ago, Tia had a really inspirational conversation with Care for Music Investigator, Wolfgang Schmid. Wolfgang works in the area of Palliative Care. The discussion was around the topic of pain and how to manage pain. Which led into a further discussion about just what pain is, how it is perceived and experienced, by whom, where and when. That led into further consideration of how pain might be understood to be socially shared or distributed. Ultimately, we went back to a fundamental question that is addressed not only to pain, but to the perception of all, or any, ‘realities’ in our lives, and how perception comes to take the forms it takes across different times, places and social scenes…. These talks prompted Tia to think again about some issues she has worked on in the past around pain perception. And an essay on that topic can be found here – it is a way to begin to think more carefully about a topic well-considered in the areas around the arts, the hospice movements, and palliative care: Total Pain.

Monday September 26, 2022, Entry 3

Aesthetics in organisations is always important and can have tremendous impact on how we feel and how we behave. At times of difficulty, under duress, we may take comfort from seemingly ‘insignificant’ things like the colour of the paint on a wall, or the pattern of sunlight in a room. So too, how we think about and imagine ‘difficult’ topics can take shape against aesthetic materials. How we imagine care, death, bereavement for example, may take shape against examples from literature or film… These can provide exemplars that ‘show us the way’ and help us to figure out ways of acting and going on, connecting, and talking about things. This week, as the project is still in prep, as Tia waits for advice on the ethical features of the new study, she is continuing to reflect on the aesthetic and ceremonial features of the hospice and what it does as displayed on its public website. And it has taken her back to her studies of organisational culture and prompted her to ask the question, What can happen when the CEO of a major hospice is also a musician and a trained music therapist?

Tuesday September 20, 2022, Entry 2

Inevitably reflecting on the importance of ritual and ceremony after the Nation, “stood still and said goodbye” yesterday to the Queen. Every detail seemed to have meaning and for those who mourned these details mattered greatly. Tia remembers being part of a group at the University of Exeter who met the Queen in 1994 (when Tia counted as ‘young’ staff). Tia was very nervous but managed to utter one word when asked by Her Majesty, “And what is your area of study?” “Music,” Tia said. The Queen then said with a question in her voice, “music?” to which Tia could only nod and repeat, “music.” The Queen nodded before gently moving on to the next person in the group… A kind woman who impressed Tia as being full of care for others….

Thinking about the royal funeral inevitably prompts thinking about how we mark death and deal with grief in varied ways. This blog will be writing about that a lot as the project develops. And it will be thinking about how we turn to cultural resources to find, at least moments, of peace and consolation. Today, two weeks on from the first diary entry, Tia is still taking the hospice ‘tour’ online. Now she is ‘in’ the hospice garden which she first saw for real in 2017, shortly after it was installed….

Friday September 2, 2022, Entry 1.

The project began yesterday. Tia is planning and preparing – with help from her long-term research partner Gary Ansdell. The Care for Music Project will overlap with this one for a while – we’ll visit in October when Wolfgang Schmid will shadow Fraser Simpson. Care for Music is also convening a workshop for the Hospice Conference next month.

The overlap between projects is part of the plan. And part of what Tia will explore is what happens when the CEO of a hospice is also a trained music therapist? (Nigel Hartley, Mountbatten’s Chief Executive Officer, is someone that both Tia and Gary have known for many years.) Tia will also stay in touch with Wolfgang and his work at the Norwegian hospice, and with Sebastian von Hofacker at Verdighetsenteret (the Dignity Centre) in Bergen, Norway, a ‘Nasjonalt kompetansesenter som arbeider for en verdig alderdom for alle’ (National competence centre that works for a dignified old age for everyone). While Tia has visited Earl Mountbatten on several occasions, meanwhile, she is getting familiar with the layout and ambience of the hospice through a 3D Virtual Tour….

The tour’s purpose is, ‘to help patients, families and visitors learn more about the hospice and see what life at Mountbatten is all about’. The hospice mission is, ‘to promote and to provide good care and support for those people living with, affected by, or curious about death, dying and bereavement across the Isle of Wight’. The project will shadow the diverse ways people – in the Island community – are affected by, imagine, and are curious about death, dying and bereavement. One of the questions to be explored is how the hospice – its physical and aesthetic space, its events and activities – contributes to this process. For example, how might our willingness to think about matters related to the ‘end of life’ take shape in relation to, say, the colour of the armchairs in the hospice, its artwork, or the flower that is the hospice emblem: the bright yellow sunflower?