In 2009 our mother was on her deathbed, six of her seven offspring around, creating a loving, nurturing space for her departure. We gently sang songs, listened to her jokes and told ones of our own, reminisced and shared news of the next generation. In short, we created and held a sacred-space for our mum, intuitively and without formal guidance. It was a beautiful death.

Fast-forward two weeks and we were faced with losing our sister, the aforementioned seventh who was unable to be present for our mum. We performed many of the same rituals we’d engaged in for our mum, yet this death was premature and filled with pain. Although we did our best to create a loving space for our sister, the emotional journey was difficult, and seeing her make her earthly departure was traumatic. In spite of my internal pain at the situation, it felt like we held a loving, healing space for her to pass.

Nine months later and it was the turn of my father, a staunch atheist who was pragmatic and told me he wanted to go as quickly as possible, and had no fear whatsoever about what might happen once he’d died because he believed this physical life to be all we have.

Each of these experiences required me to call on intuitive skills of soul-midwifery that I didn’t know about or realise I possessed. It was a number of years later that I heard the term and felt an immediate pull, though it was several more years before I was able to research, study, retrain and qualify as a Soul Midwife.

After graduating as a mature-student with my sociology degree, I spent almost six years in China teaching English and developing my creativity by way of writing and performing poetry and short stories. I even hosted a livestream radio show on Chengdu Community Radio called ‘Lyrical Wizardry with Lady P’, available here: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1CC4y1a7Pd/

During my time in China I felt the pull to work with people at end of life grow stronger, until I was finally able to undertake training with the Soul Midwives School in January 2022. Also a qualified life-coach, my calling is to be of service, assisting people to make peace with mortality whatever their situation.

Insured and DBS certified, I'm currently based in Manchester and willing to travel if required. Email me at: penney@penneysfromheaven.org for more information, and remember to include a phone number if you require an immediate response.

Click the link to visit the national Soul Midwives portal for more information or to see if there's a Soul Midwife in your area: https://www.soulmidwives.co.uk/soul-midwives-uk/