About
In the Evening of Life is a project of The Good Death Institute, Inc., a non-profit organization (501c3) founded in 1998 by Peggy Flynn MA and others as an outgrowth of 40 years of active hospice care and negotiating family dynamics around health issues. Our goal is to provide information and insights about the larger context of life as it is being lived in one’s later years. We have seen that there is enormous potential in the evening of life to create the conditions that contribute to both a good life and a good death. We offer the following services: Geriatric Care Consulting, Personal Spiritual Direction and information about dying and death. For more information, CLICK HERE to visit our Services page.
Our Community
Broadly speaking our community is anyone who will someday age and die.
More specifically, we want to engage with individuals and their loved ones who are navigating the aging process and eventually the dying/death process.
What are the questions? What resources are available? What is being discovered? Where are the pain points? How can we make it better?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The organization’s foundation is built around Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s hierarchy is a comprehensive, highly nuanced model for designing, implementing and evaluating an illness, aging and dying scenario for every participant: the individual, caregivers and professionals.
Too often the well-being of one person gets sacrificed to another’s. The result can be exhaustion, burn-out, and even illness. Much of this can be prevented if respect for self-care and the needs of others is built into the plan from the beginning. The typical caregiving situation is more marathon than sprint.
For example, is everyone getting enough sleep and good food? If not, why not? What can we do to ensure that these essential needs are being met? Is everyone safe? Who is not safe? Who is not feeling safe? Why not? What needs to be done to increase the sense of safety?
Meet the Founder
Peggy Flynn is a writer, caregiver, spiritual director, geriatric care consultant and knitter/spinner. She brings her 40 years of caregiving and end-of-life experience with 300+ people to what some call the third-third of life or, more poetically, the evening of life.
Her approach is holistic—body/mind/spirit—grounded in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It is vital to keep both logistics and mystery in mind.
A life-long learner she recently completed the Jungian Studies Program at the Chicago Jung Institute followed by study of Ignatian Spirituality at Loyola University Chicago. She has an MA from Goddard College, focusing on the psychology and physiology of aging (1988).
Now at 70, the evening of life is very, very real!