Death Cafe profile for Andrea Murphy
Location: Canada
About Andrea Murphy:
I am a Toronto native. I grew up between Canada and in the United States, and have been fortunate to spend significant time on other contintents, too. I returned to my hometown in 2017 at age 40, just in time for my mother's death. And thus I learned how we as a culture approach death in this time and place. I didn't know before--not really.
Until then, I worked primariliy as a yoga teacher and birth worker. Since then, I have shifted my vocation towards end-of-life. I enrolled in Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School and sought funeral services education at Humber College, earning a Class 1 funeral director license in Ontario in 2020, and in Saskatchewan in 2023. I am employed at my local funeral home part-time while pursuing other artistic ventures. I have continued studies on the ritual and spiritual side of deathcare with Sarah Kerr and Sacred Deathcare. I continue to follow the changing trends in the bereavement industry and am deeply interested in participating in conversations about the preciousness of life and death among my fellow mortals.
What brings you to Death Cafe?
Death Cafe helped me at a time in my life when I desperately needed to connect with others on the topic of death. I was grateful to discover Death Cafe when I did. Hosting Death Cafes is my way of paying forward the support that was offered to me.
What would you like your legacy to be?
I would like to leave a legacy both playful and helpful. Would that it include cultural shifts towards conversation starting, hand holding and dancing in the streets.
Thoughts for sharing:
"Well, we should admit it: This is a sad business, befriending your death. There is nothing heroic about it, at least not in your eyes if you are the one trying to do it. But there is great courage in it. Giving your death its due in your life, though it might seem like it now, won't be a grudging defeat. That's just more of the same. Giving your death its due is an ever more graceful bow you might make towards your life, and to life itself, as your life goes on and you learn."
Stephen Jenkinson, from How it All Could Be: A work book dying people and for those who love them
Contact Andrea Murphy
Andrea Murphy's posts on the Death Cafe website
With Andrea Murphy
Aug. 28, 2019, 6.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
I have organized this cafe because I want to talk about death, particularly with the people in my neighbourhood.
To be clear, there is no agenda to this Death Cafe ...
With Andrea Murphy
July 31, 2019, 6.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
I have organized this cafe because I want to talk about death, particularly with the people in my neighbourhood.
To be clear, there is no agenda to this Death Cafe ...
With Andrea Murphy
June 26, 2019, 6.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
I have organized this cafe because I want to talk about death, particularly with the people in my neighbourhood.
To be clear, there is no agenda to this Death Cafe ...
With Andrea Murphy
May 29, 2019, 6.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
I have organized this cafe because I want to talk about death, particularly with the people in my neighbourhood.
To be clear, there is no agenda to this Death Cafe ...
With Andrea Murphy
March 27, 2019, 6.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
I have organized this cafe because I want to talk about death, particularly with the people in my neighbourhood.
Also because I found the perfect venue. I want to support ...
With Andrea Murphy
Jan. 30, 2019, 6.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
I have organized this cafe because I want to talk about death, particularly with the people in my neighbourhood.
Also, I have organized this cafe because I found the perfect ...