Death Cafe write-ups
U3A Joburg East Death Cafe Write up
Posted by U3AJoburgEast on June 24, 2020, 6:24 a.m.
In 2019 we met once a month over tea and cake. Before lockdown we had twelve members with an average attendance of ten a month. Our last face to face meeting was in February 2020. We did not meet in March or April due to the COVID-19 lockdown. In May we agreed to continue our Death Café sessions using zoom and to meet virtually twice a month. Participants bring their own tea/coffee to the sessions. Regrettably only six of our members have the facilities to participate in virtual sessions.
Topics discussed over the period July 2019 to June 2020 include;
-
How do I want to spend the ...
It was great to be joined by 7 others for the fourth virtual meeting of the Colliers Wood Death Café via Zoom. Once again there was a strong trans-Atlantic presence with participants joining from CA, CO, FL, and NJ!
Themes to emerge from our conversation:
The importance and value of discussing death and dying, and the role such conversations can have in the reduction of the all too common fear that unhelpfully presents itself around these human topics.
The powerful role of the global pandemic in prompting us to face our mortality. How much more possible, and even permissible it perhaps feels to talk about these unspoken and ...
Hello everyone,
I hope you are staying well, physically and mentally. Thank you to those who joined the conversations during the June 10th Death Café – Hillsborough (DC-H) – our third Zoom call! We packed it with information and learned new things! Using Zoom has changed our dynamic yet it also allowed some new people from far away places to join us!
There has been a marked increase in “Virtual Death Cafés” worldwide! This is not only due to the fact we can’t meet in person but also because more people are seriously contemplating their mortality and thus are more willing to discuss death and dying. Information ...
East Rockville Online Death Cafe EST Write up
Posted by AmesSandra on June 18, 2020, 6:36 p.m.
The East Rockville Death Café has been meeting since October 2019. When we were meeting in a local café we always had a mix of neighbors and other people who were interested and dropped by. Meetings moved to Zoom in May and we continue to have an interesting group of people, one of whom was attending virtually from Canada.
In the June meeting the subject of palliative care vs “lingering” came up. Roughly the former is an acceptance of chronic disease from the outset with a view towards quality of life, the latter an attempt to try any means of prolonging life. Participants discussed the time before the ...
Dear Freinds,
Hope you and your loved one's are healthy and safe.
Heart House Hospice had an amazing turn out and I want to thank the organizers of Death Cafe for offering this online platform to the world.
We had 23 attendees, most of us from Canada, one each from England, United States and India (Wow !! the lady who attened woke up at 4 am to attend our meet !!!). This speaks volumes of how effective this website is turning out to be.
We had break out rooms of maximum 4 people and then a whole group sharing at the end. The conversations were very interactive and thought ...
Death Cafe Albany hosted by Kate Write up
Posted by DeathCafeAlbany on June 6, 2020, 8:01 p.m.
We decided for everyone's health and safety to cancel this Death Cafe at Niskayuna Linrary. we will re-scheudle there when folks are meeeitng in person agian. We have our 2nd Virtual Death Cafe via Zoom on June 15th 7-8:30pm- come join us !
Virtual Death Cafe Louisville Write up
Posted by Justin Magnuson on June 4, 2020, 12:15 p.m.
Hosting virtual Death Cafes has been an interesting experience. I can say that 5 years of hosting them in-person has provided a good foundation for the transition, but there are little quirks in reading the other attendees body language, turn taking, and allowing thoughtful pauses that makes it difficult.
I have already read several articles about the phenomena. At least one published by the End of Life Studies Group seemed mildly antagonistic to the concept. My personal preference is and hopefully will always be face-to-face encounters, but I can see an argument, regarding both safety and access, to continue to offer virtual opportunities to keep Death Cafes open ...
Tunbridge Wells Online Death Cafe BST Write up
Posted by carmeldunmall on May 30, 2020, 9:11 a.m.
8 of us attended today. The conversation flowed easily for the hour. We talked about our wishes following our death, natural burials, advance directives, composting bodies and generally discussing what makes a good death.
North Tyneside online Death Cafe Write up
Posted by North Tyneside Virtual Death Cafe on May 28, 2020, 9:49 a.m.
Karen and Helen hosted their first Death Cafe together at this event. It was, we agreed, a success and we are keen to host more in the future. The hosting part was the easy bit; once everyone got comfy and had heard the introduction (about the aims of the Death Cafe movement) the conversation flowed and didn't stop!
Looking forward to meeting new (and old) cafe companions. We will host these 4 times each year; Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
NNPCN hosted its first ONLINE Death Cafe with great success. The online format allowed us to connect with people from all over Ontario. Hospice professionals and volunteers made up the bulk of the group, so it was a unique mix of participants -- as with all Death Cafes! Thank you to all who contributed to the rich discussion.
May Iowa Virtual Death Cafe Write up
Posted by DeathCafeIowa on May 26, 2020, 9:18 a.m.
For our May Death Café Iowa we met on Zoom. Buffy Peters and Becca Suvalsky from the Bereavement Professionals Group facilitated the group. In total there were 14 people in attendance, 2 men and 12 women, and participants ranged in ages and professions. Several members had to jump off before we were able to take the picture. We had individuals join from California, Florida, Iowa, and Colorado. It has been really fun to meet different people from across the county that also want to talk about death. Several interesting topics were brought forward for discussion.
Topics included:
Alternative funerals: Several members shared examples of alternative funerals and how ...
There were 15 of us on the Zoom call for our third virtual meeting of the Colliers Wood Death Café. We dialled in from across the globe, with participants both sides of the Atlantic and the Arabian Peninsula!
We were joined by two hosts of Death Café meetings which take place in Bristol and Bournemouth:
https://deathcafe.com/profile/14589/
https://deathcafe.com/profile/17706/
It was wonderful to welcome those attending their first ever Death Café and reconnect with several who have attended physical meetings of CWDC at Coffee in the Wood.
We began by acknowledging the extraordinary circumstances in which we came together, and took a ...
Grief wellies Death Cafe Bedfordshire Online Write up
Posted by Grief Wellies on May 22, 2020, 3:41 a.m.
This was our first one on line - using zoom. I was a bit nervous as to how it woudl go but it worked reallly well.
We had 7 of us including 2 new members of our group - 1 all the way from Saudi !!
Great to share
We are holding them every fortnight moving forward
Hello everyone, I hope you are staying well, physically and mentally. Thank you to those who joined the conversations during the May 13th Death Café – Hillsborough (DC-H) – our second Zoom call! We packed it with information and learned new things! Using Zoom has changed our dynamic yet it also allowed several new people to join us, including from Greensboro, Raleigh, and New York City! We are grateful for UMC allowing us to use their Zoom account (versus their “little house” where we normally meet in person). If you have not yet sent a few dollars to say thanks for last week, here is their website: uniongroveumc.org and ...
Online Death Cafe
Evaluation Summary
Evaluations: 8 submitted
Attendees: 1 facilitator, 12 attendees
The weeks seem to be flying by, and here we are nearly at our next Online Death Cafe.
Our fourth Death Cafe was hosted on Zoom and our first online. It was facilitated again by Jamie Fearn and assisted by Martin Poole who runs a Death Cafe on the Wirral and Kris D'Août who has been attending the Liverpool Death Cafes regularly (thank you both for your support). There was a drop in numbers compared to our last face to face event, but we still managed to split into small group, which made ...