The nun and nurse tells Elena Curti how her work in palliative care has helped to shape a supportive website

Once Sr Elizabeth Farmer starts to talk about her past patients there is no stopping her. The memories come tumbling out, of individuals she helped in their final journeys: the Liverpool docker with a secret child, the father who could not die because he feared his son was a drug addict, the woman who rejected God but whose end was profoundly spiritual and many, many more. Sr Elizabeth remembers them all from her long career as a palliative care worker and a member of the Little Company of Mary.

She’s 80 now and retired but she has acted as a consultant for a website being launched on Tuesday, All Saints’ Day (1 November), by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

The site takes its inspiration from the Ars moriendi (“The Art of Dying”), a fifteenth-century guide to preparing for a good death. It is a resource that has been created to help anyone who wants to learn more about death and who is in search of spiritual and practical guidance. It should be of particular interest to those who are seriously ill, their loved ones and professional carers. Experts in palliative care, ethics, chaplaincy and history have been involved in the project.