EARLIER this month was National Dying Matters Awareness Week and Elizabeth Snell and Family arranged a full week of activities to bring awareness to the general public asking What can you do?
They held Death Cafés during the week to start the conversation around death and dying, and had many visitors asking all sorts of questions. At the end of the cafés they were asked to host more of these events.
What is a death café?
At a Death Cafe people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death. Elizabeth Snell and Family explain, “Our objective is ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’. A Death Cafe is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session.
“Questions that arise can be varied such as:
* Who is your role model for making life-changes well?
* Where would you like to be when you die?
* How would you like to be remembered?
* What song would you like at your funeral?
“Elizabeth Snell and Family are to host three cafés over the coming months at the Farmhouse Inn, Southwick at 7pm on 4th July and 1st August to help answer some of these questions and discuss any that visitors may have.
“A warm welcome awaits everyone.”
http://deathcafe.com/what/ • http://www.dyingmatters.org/overview/about-us