Great turnout!
A write up of Mansfield Death Cafe
By Karri
I held the first ever Mansfield Death Cafe last week and it was a total success. I invited students who were taking my course on the psychology of Death & Dying. Word got out to other professors, who promoted the event in their psychology courses. In all, I had 19 students and faculty show up, which is 3x more than I was expecting! Luckily, I had purchased a second cake.
The conversation was a bit awkward at first, but the ice was broken with a few jokes about death. The book "All My Friends are Dead" was passed around, which helped to loosen people up. After that, people were very chatty and stayed on the topic of death the whole time. One girl shared that she is currently mourning the loss of her father. She brought pictures of him and passed them around. Others brought up topics such as media desensitization to death in our society and how Facebook has created a new way to grieve and mourn online.
The conversation was wonderful. I am so pleased with the turnout and the participation. I will surely be having another Death Cafe in the future!