Death Cafe write-ups
Death Cafe In Oxford Write up
Posted by Josefine Speyer on Aug. 12, 2013, 2:12 p.m. 1 comment
This was the first time I held a Death Café in an actual café. Café Rouge in Hampstead has been my favourite café for many years. So the idea of a death café in the upstairs room, newly decorated, where we could be amongst ourselves, was absolutely ideal and I looked forward to it in anticipation. The manager was open to the idea of hosting us free of charge. There was just one request, that they hoped we would order enough food and drink to make it worth their while. In the event this was no problem.
We had 19 bookings and three cancellations on the day. But ...
Death Cafe with the Natural Death Centre Write up
Posted by Josefine Speyer on Aug. 12, 2013, 2:06 p.m.
This was a special Death Cafe to celebrate the Natural Death Centre's 21st birthday. My husband Nicholas Albery and I founded the NDC in April 1991. Nicholas ran the office in the garden room and I held Death Salons and workshops in our living room. Ten years ago Nicholas died in a car accident and since then the office has moved out. It is now based outside London, near Winchester. For info see: www.naturaldeath.org.uk
This was the first Death Cafe I held, with Jon Underwood, the founder of Death Cafe in the UK. In setting up the Death Cafe website and promoting it as ...
Death Cafe In Oxford Write up
Posted by Josefine Speyer on Aug. 12, 2013, 1:57 p.m. 2 comments
We had a very enjoyable Death Cafe gathering at Dennis's Albion Beatnik Bookstore. A big Thank You to Dennis for hosting us! Sitting around small coffee tables in the shop window, surrounded by books piled high. A really beautiful little place. Reminding of Harry Potter or days gone by. A really intimate and delightful venue for this Death Café.
A small group of eight people attended. Not all who booked were able to come and others joined us without booking, so it worked out really well in the end. It was a diverse and friendly group of people ranging from aged 20's - 76!
This Death Caf ...
Some purple balloons on a silver birch tree marked the location of the first Death Café in Hemel Hempstead. Audrey, my friend, had offered her house and baking skills to hold this Death Café, after we had together visited a Café in London last November.
I only advertised this Death Café through the websites of the Natural Death Centre and the Death Café and further through Facebook, a local school's newsletter and word of mouth and I was overwhelmed with the response.
I was originally thinking of contacting the local newspapers and putting posters up at our local hospice, libraries and GP surgeries, but I am now ...
Invito a partecipare al Death Cafe, conversazione aperta sulla morte e sul morire Write up
Posted by Elisabetta Lucchi on Aug. 6, 2013, 10:28 a.m.
Our fifth Death Café in Verona was held at the Casa di Ramia, an Intercultural Centre for women. And we also heard that this was the 100th Death Café in the world! Had we known we would have put candles on the cake (just joking).
There were eight participants and the meeting started in a very particular way with a beautiful and touching reading of a story written (and extremely well read out) by a mother who had wanted to express her feelings about the process she went through in a period of her life when she was faced with having to accept the possible death of ...
Invito a partecipare al Death Cafe, conversazione aperta sulla morte e sul morire Write up
Posted by Elisabetta Lucchi on Aug. 6, 2013, 10:17 a.m.
Once again the Cerchio della Luna hosted our fourth Death Café and once again there were five participants. Our thanks to the bookshop for their kindness in letting us hold the meetings there.
The atmosphere was one of lightheartedness and fun. The conversation this time revolved around the theme of accompanying dying people in their last days and last moments. We talked about the difficulty of communication between relatives and the dying person and how important it is most of all to just listen which is the best thing to do when dealing with a family with a terminal patient.
Interestingly, we then moved on to the difficulty ...
Invito a partecipare al Death Cafe, conversazione aperta sulla morte e sul morire Write up
Posted by Elisabetta Lucchi on Aug. 6, 2013, 10:09 a.m.
The Cerchio della Luna bookshop very kindly hosted our third Death Café here in Verona. There were five participants and for the first time there were more men than women.
The atmosphere was serene and light-hearted and the meeting was, as for the previous two meetings, very intense and enriched by many different points of view.
The conversation this time mainly involved reflections on life after death and we heard about pre-death and spiritual experiences leading to sensations of calm and acceptance with regard to one’s own death. There was also talk of bereavement linked to people who are close to us, either in the family or ...
Invito a partecipare al primo Death Cafe in Italia! Write up
Posted by Elisabetta Lucchi on Aug. 6, 2013, 9:18 a.m.
As it was absolutely our first Death Cafe, we were quite content for it to be a smaller, cosier affair. There were 6 of us in total, including Elisabetta and myself, the two organisers.
It was held at Elisabetta's flat and this contributed to what was generally felt to be a warm, welcoming atmosphere.
We followed the Death Cafe guidelines pretty much to the letter with the exception that we decided that Elisabetta would do a short meditation session before the first exercise.
This worked really well as it focused people and helped them to concentrate in a calm, relaxed way. Highly recommended!
The first exercise went ...
Today we held the first Death Cafe in Southern Rhode Island. Eighteen people came out to The Hive in North Kingstown at 2:00 PM to eat calzones and delicious cake, drink tea and coffee and talk in an intimate setting about Death. And then we talked about Life. The two hours we set aside flew by and it was 4:00 PM before we knew it.
Evaluations: 16 submitted
Attendees: 1 facilitator, 14 participants, 2 volunteers
1. Overall, how would you rate this event? 5 = Excellent 1 = Poor
10 Rated at 5; 4 Rated at 4; 2 Rated at 3
1. Comments:
· Enjoyed the format. Would like it to be longer.
· Wonderful event for first timers! So glad we are able to ...
First Death Cafe Write-Up Santa Barbara
We hosted our first Death Cafe in Santa Barbara on Monday night, April 8th from 6-8PM. It was held at a local restaurant in a private room. We received 20 RSVPs and 20 came! People found out about it primarily by word-of-mouth.
We started the evening by having people put on name tags and order food if they wanted to eat dinner. We proceeded to introductions. I (Lynn) started out by briefly explaining the concept and origin of Death Cafe and how I got interested. My co-host, Martha, introduced herself next. Introductions continued around the tables. We had a number of people ...
by Lynn Holzman
We had our second Death Cafe Santa Barbara on Monday, May 6th from 6-8PM.
This time we had it in a community center. We advertised in our local free newspaper. About 30 people came.
We served tea and cake and used my grandmother's teacup collection.
We started with general information about Death Cafes. Then people introduced themselves. I proposed a conversation starter and we split into small groups for discussion. The topic was "Discuss the first death you remember, or the most recent, or the most memorable".
After that we reconvened in a circle to "wrap up". It was suggested that we go around ...
Death Cafe Santa Barbara Write-up July 2013
Death Cafe Santa Barbara met for the third time last night. It was held in our new location and in collaboration with The Center For Successful Aging. 25 people attended; three of whom had attended our previous Death Cafe. I welcomed my new co-host, Liz Bauer!
We ran the group as we did the last time with myself giving a brief history of Death Cafe, followed by introductions. Liz then proposed a prompt question which was, “When did you first become aware of death?”. At this point we broke into small groups and talked for about an hour.
We gathered back ...
Death Cafe Ann Arbor Michigan Write up
Posted by DianaCramer on July 25, 2013, 3 p.m. 1 comment
12 people including me (1 man, Warner)
7 returns
5 new
Age range 82-25?
Topics that were discussed: suicide: in the young and healthy and for those terminally ill, the lack of role models for facing death, the idea that we are the elders forging new territory and could become a role models for younger generations, the difference between pain management for those dying in hospice care and those not in hospice care, how we would like to die, planning our own memorial service and writing our own obituary, healing interactions that occurred before an unexpected sudden death of a loved one, home funerals and green burials.
Words ...
I attended something called a 'Death Cafe' today.
I was terrified at the concept of sitting in a room, with a random group of people I had never met, to talk about the one thing that terrifies me more than anything in the world - DEATH. I had been worrying about it quietly all week.
A little background before I tell you of my experience -
I have always had an innate fear (and nobody really knows this) of dying. I have 'visions' every day, sometimes multiple ones in any given day, of my own death. They are often violent and abrupt, and I keep this to myself for fear ...