Death is coming to Canmore and the old Grim Reaper is planning to set his scythe in the corner and sit down for a cup of coffee and a chat.
Canmore’s first Death Café is scheduled to take place at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre on Feb. 25 from 7-9 p.m.
And to answer the question, a Death Café is not at all about how to die, but really how to live life to its fullest.
Bonnie Hamilton who along with Barbara Parker are organizing the event, said Monday (Feb. 10) the idea behind a Death Café is to provide a forum for people to talk about death, a subject still considered taboo, in a safe, respectful environment.
“The aim of the Death Café is to increase awareness of death with the view of helping people make the most of their finite lives,” Hamilton said. “Going through death with somebody else, or if you have your own illness, it makes you a bit more present. Your awareness of death and your association with it may change how you make decisions in life.
“The reason it’s called a Death Café is that you come and drink good coffee and have a comfortable seat and there’s no agenda, just like you’d go to a café and have an interesting conversation with interesting people.”
The café will begin with an introduction of what it is and how it works. After that, Hamilton said participants will break into small groups of four or five to discuss death and dying.
“It’s small groups so people don’t feel intimidated, because these are quite personal stories,” she said. “People don’t normally need much of a push to discuss things, but we’ll have prompting questions to keep things going and that will be about 45 minutes and then we’ll switch up the groups.”
Hamilton said the discussion will be framed so that it is respectful and confidential.
“We hope that people will go out and talk about what was talked about, but that they won’t use any names in our tiny little community,” she said.
Death Café is not, however, a place for grief counseling.
“We’re not set up for that,” Hamilton said. “We’re a discussion group. It’s OK for people to come who are grieving, but they should know they should probably be tapping into counseling and we’re not that.”
Participants are also welcome to just sit and listen.
Death Cafés began in London, England in 2011 and are based on the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who believes that death needs not be a taboo subject and discussed in secret.
The Death Café is open to anyone. It is free, but Hamilton asks those interested in attending to RSVP to [email protected] or leave a message at 403-678-5830.
Go to www.deathcafe.com for more information.
