Death Cafe in Colliers Wood - 28 April 2019
A write up of Colliers Wood Death Cafe - April 2019
By Cecilia H
Three of us met and began our discussion exploring where each of us find ourselves in relation to death and dying, and what it is that we have been thinking about.
Wills, Executors, and Powers of Attorney are things that we have been giving a lot of consideration to, both at Death Cafe and elsewhere.
We went on to talk about the regularity with which things seem to come out when someone has died, and our shared experience of secrets and surprises after death. We spoke about the importance of finding opportunities to share our wishes with those we care about ahead of time.
We spent some time talking about our own funeral wishes - what would we want? How important is it? Who knows what we would like? We reflected on the common statement spoken at funerals - "It's what he/she/they would have wanted" - how do we know? Should we have to guess?
Lastly, in thinking about the difficulty with which raising the subject with certain family members presents, one member shared their approach of picking the battles they undertake. This led to us talking more generally about cherishing life, marking birthdays beyond those that friends we've known who have died before us as we attain ages they never saw. We reflected on how attending the Death Cafe reminds us not to take things, life, health, or ageing for granted.
The final theme of our discussion was around digital legacies - and our own preparedness...