Hosted by Grace O'Malley

This Death Cafe has taken place

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About Grace O'Malley

Like many people, death wasn’t something I thought much about until I experienced my first significant bereavement in 2015. It then became a very dominant theme in my life as I went on to have 5 other significant bereavements between 2015 and 2021. Being thrust into the world of funerals and grief I found myself reflecting on how ill-prepared I was to navigate the funeral industry and how monumentally debilitating complex grief can be.

During this time, it helped me to expand my thinking on matters of death and mortality. Doing this helped me to find some agency in what was meaningful to me, rather than just adopting conventional beliefs or traditions around death and dying and how we honour the deceased.

I’m pretty sure if I had been more aware and reflective before experiencing a bereavement, it of course, wouldn’t have lessen the crushing nature of grief, but I think it would have helped me be better prepared and less vulnerable at a time you are exceedingly vulnerable.

I now align myself with The Positive Death Movement and have set up this Death Cafe to facilitate discussion, learning and openness about death and dying. As noted, having deeper peace with our mortality is something I truly believe can help us make the most of our finite lives.

I am now a Funeral Celebrant as I truly believe the ritual of the funeral is both deeply meaningful and therapeutically valuable. Helping others in grief became a way I could help make sense of my own.  

I have a particular interest in those working with death and dying and how these experiences have influenced their thoughts about mortality.  

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