April Death Cafe
A write up of April Death Cafe Online
For our April Death Café Iowa we took the plunge and went virtual with a Zoom meeting! Buffy Peters from the Bereavement Professionals Group facilitated the group. In total there were 5 people in attendance, 1 man and 4 women, and participants ranged in ages and professions. One exciting addition was a member from California that was a Death Doula! Several interesting topics were brought forward for discussion.
Topics included:
Death doulas
Obituaries and what we would or would not want to include in ours. One member commented “how do you fit a big life into a little obit?” Another member shared that she wrote two for her father after he died. A short and to the point obit for the newspaper and a longer one that share memories, inside jokes, etc. Many people commented that it made them feel closer to her dad and it was really therapeutic for her to write.
COVID-19 in a death denying society. One member commented when we were talking about the media and COVID-19 that everything is viewed through a filter of death phobia which struck a chord for many of us. In our society we tend to see people dying as a failure and with the justification of who is dying of COVID that they are somehow substandard because they have pre-existing conditions, etc. Also this pandemic is forcing people to reexamine their lives and think about their own death.
One member suggested checking out the book, “Die Wise”, by Stephen Jenkinson.
It was such an interesting Death Café as we welcomed new members and members from around the country. We look forward to more interesting and insightful conversations in our next Zoom meeting May 19th!