Death Cafe, Gold Coast, Hopewell Hospice
A write up of Death Cafe, Gold Coast
By Beth OBrien
What a wonderful afternoon we had with our Death Cafe held at Hopewell Hospice on the Gold Coast to commemorate Palliative Care Week. It was our largest group with 35 people. To give you an idea of some of the topics, here is a shortened list of what we spoke about - researching purchasing a funeral, what if someone doesn't want a funeral, what happens when someone dies at home, self care for carers, why we say the words "passed away" instead of died, what to say to a person who doesn't want to talk about their pending death, pre-paid funerals, after death experiences, grief, ashes, burial at sea, advanced health directive, options for funeral (burial, cremation, fireworks with ashes, jewellery with ashes), spirits still being with us. So you can see it was really different afternoon out. Ian Mavor one of Hopewell Hospice's founders (who is a lovely singer) led us all in singing Auld Lang Syne, which was a warm end to a great Death Cafe. I was certainly think of "days gone by" when we were signing. Grateful for Dee and Ian inviting us, and in all the people in the room sharing their thoughts and wisdom. Banana cake also awesome. On the evaluation forms for our Death Cafe on the Gold Coast yesterday, were the encouraging words:
informative, enlightening, great factual knowledge, comfortable, light heartened, entertaining, good humoured, educative, caring, thought provoking, invigorating, inspirational, respectful, open, surprisingly entertaining. We indeed feel heartened by this generous comments.