Death Cafe Marrickville's writeup
A write up of Death Cafe Marrickville
By mknight
Our May Death Café found us in our new home, Parliament on King in Newtown. After a short break while looking for our new locale, it was a delight to once again welcome Death Café devotees to Death Café Marrickville.
As always, death-related interests and life experiences were diverse, at times challenging, and always conversational. One of the impressions I consistently take away with me from Death Café, is how innately respectful people are toward one another. This is something I personally find reassuring, especially in a society where disrespect toward others, which manifests in all manner of ways and situations, seems to be becoming more commonplace.
Although I jot down notes as an aid to help me recall certain aspects of the conversation, on occasion I simply like to quietly reflect on how death manifests in all our lives, and how we all uniquely find a sense of rhythm with it. Some, like me, research and seek to find meaning in it, others write about it, raise awareness about it or support the dying and the bereaved. Yet what binds us all uniquely together, it seems to me, is that death is an event in which is embedded our very humanity, however we might define it, and it’s that which draws us to it.
As always, conversation each month orientates naturally toward a particular aspect of death and dying, and this month conversation seemed to ebb and flow around some of the practicalities of death.
One attendee shared a fascinating account of the time she worked for a Body Donor Program at a local university, and all the practical and ethical ins and outs, so to speak, that accompanied such a role. Others talked about the commercialisation of the funeral industry versus DIY options, natural burials and eco coffins. Another attendee, a celebrant who ‘loves doing funerals’ shared an account of how after one funeral, a mourner thanked her for normalising death. And as always, we talked about the denial of death and the factors that shape our attitudes toward our end of life.
The time sped by, and before we knew it, the time had come for us to finish. As people drifted away into the rainy evening, I saw people encouraged and uplifted, stimulated and challenged, and new friendships taking shape. Whoever said Death Café was morbid and depressing!