Taking on a loved one’s unfinished passion project after they die or become too incapacitated to complete, with your preteen – young adult, can be both a healing and bonding. Maybe while reorganizing after a major family illness, or loss, you find an incomplete quilt, half knit sweater, unfinished carpentry project. Committing to finish the project and making a tangible memory offers a surprising experience of self-healing.
Making it a family project, or something you do with a young person also impacted by the loss opens a door to a closer bond … sharing stories and memories, imparting witticisms and facts not previously shared, an opportunity to broach the topic of death or creating the possibility to gently approach the topic of your own end-of-life wishes.
I recently learned about Loose Ends, a U.S.- based nonprofit started in 2023 by Jennifer Simonic and Masey Kaplan. With a network of 35,000 volunteers across 84 countries the nonprofit has helped finish 4,500 textile craft projects – needlepoint, knitting, quilting, sewing bringing closure to those left behind. But projects don’t need to be textile crafts like these. They can be any passion project left unfinished. The project could be something as big as completing the restoration of that old pick up, or refinishing a piece of furniture — or, as simple as creating a cookbook of some of their recipes and making some of the favorites together. or creating an album of old photos.