A brush with mortality inspired sisters Sophia and Camilla Minden to create a death-themed event featuring live bands, wild swimming \u2026 and an \u2018emoshpit\u2019<\/p>\n
Raised in the Lake District on \u201cmusic, moss and macaroni cheese,\u201d Sophia and Camilla Minden were mindful of death from a very early age. The sisters shared a bed and played in the woods behind their house, frequently bringing home injured and dying birds, frogs and a rat they named Adrian and fed pate and pork pie. \u201cEverything we\u2019d learned about their diet, we learned from Wind in the Willows,\u201d admits Sophia. The creatures rarely survived, but the death of each one was respectfully honoured with a burial in the garden, words spoken, singing and a stone or flower placed on the grave.<\/p>\n
What they didn\u2019t expect was that little more than a decade later, they\u2019d be planning Camilla\u2019s own funeral. Diagnosed with late-stage Hodgkin\u2019slymphoma just after her 20th birthday, she was given an 80% chance of survival, but the other 20% made her investigate her local undertakers (\u201cdated, impersonal and expensive\u201d) and work out what she wanted at her funeral (\u201cspag bol and quite a lot of Michael Jackson\u201d). Navigating \u201cshit wigs\u201d and people\u2019s awkwardness around the subject of dying, she says that she spent a lot of time \u201cbargaining with God\u201d, promising that if she made it through, she\u2019d live life to the full and appreciate every single day.<\/p>\n
The Sondering is at Rydal, Lake District<\/a>, from 18-21 <\/sup>September<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/175a1650ec70c5a6a7dfe07d36bed6720e6ed31b\/0_752_2550_2039\/master\/2550.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=885997e306d5b2115977af21ef6b46fe\" "\\"\u2018We")
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