First Death Cafe in Chattanooga!
A write up of Death Cafe Chattanooga
By taylorhr
Chattanooga's first Death Cafe was held on September 1, 2016 at the public library's downtown location. We had a great turn-out: 14 in attendance including a reporter from the local newspaper. We gathered in the auditorium at 6pm for tea and cake. The cake was lemon with a lavender buttercreamfrosting provided by Welcome Home of Chattanooga, a local non-profit dedicated to providing death with dignity to the homeless population.
A write-up in the Times Free Press's weekly event section, Chattanooga Now, was published the day of the event and sent many attendees our way. Others had heard about it on Facebook or through a friend. We were fortunate enough to have the host of Death Cafe Tucson (Isabel) in attendance to give us a few tips and, in no time, we were in two small groups and deep in discussion! One group focused on cultural practices related to death and grieving and the other focused on end-of-life care and making decisions.
When I was preparing to host and briefing the facilitator on tips Lizzy Miles shared with me, I was nervous about getting the conversations going but once we started talking (and especially once we broke into small groups), the conversations flowed easily.
We had allotted two hours for the event but were cut short by a fire alarm (and, thus, weren't able to collect survey data), but many were interested in the next one which we will be holding in October! A great start to what I think will be a regular occurrence here in Chattanooga.
Facebook: facebook.com/deathcafechattanooga
Facebook: facebook.com/deathcafechattanooga