Death Cafe profile for Martin Poole
Location: United Kingdom
http://www.wirralfuneralcelebrant.co.uk/
About Martin Poole:
I've always been interested in people. I've spent the first half of my life working as a theatre director, producer and actor. This means that I have spent many happy hours telling the stories of people and their relationships to each other, whilst trying to understand what drives and motivates them.
Now in mid-life, my desire to help and understand people deepens. I now work as a Funeral Celebrant, creating and conducting personal civil ceremonies for funerals, memorials and celebrations of life. I also help people to pre-plan their own funeral, which often gives great comfort to their family and friends by removing the burden of choice so often placed upon them. The family can be certain that the ceremony will be carried out to their loved one's wishes.
I am also currently training to be a counsellor / psychotherapist.
What brings you to Death Cafe?
As a member of the human race I can't help but ponder on our existence and of course I have thought about my own death. I'm still fascinated with our general inadaquacy to talk about death and feel that in general our fear of it means that we avoid the subject completely. I genuinely feel, however, that by talking about death we can alleviate the fear and come to accept that which is inevitable. Once we do that, I believe we can truly live our lives in a happier and more comfortable frame of mind.
What would you like your legacy to be?
I'm not certain that I particularly feel the need to leave any sort of legacy behind.
I'd like to think that I will have done more good things than bad in my lifetime and I'm quite happy to slip away when the time comes and to be forgotten.
Thoughts for sharing:
For me, life comes and one day it will go. I'm just trying to make the best of it while I'm here.
Contact Martin Poole
Martin Poole's posts on the Death Cafe website
New Blog post: To facilitate or to join in?
Posted by Martin Poole on May 23, 2021, 8:26 a.m. 2 comments
I've run a few Death Cafe events over the past couple of years both in person before the pandemic and online afterwards.
This blog post isn't so much a post imparting wisdom but a question to others running Death Cafe events on their experience with being the facilitator.
Depending on numbers of attendees and how I've personally felt at the time, I've sometimes joined in as a participant in the conversations ...
Death Cafe write up: Death Cafe Wirral
Posted by Martin Poole on Sept. 18, 2019, 6:13 a.m.
This is the third Death Cafe Wirral event that I’ve run.
We were back ay Hoylake Parade Community Centre again, but now with a much-improved refreshment offer in the form of the lovely new Popsy’s Coffee Bar run by Terri and her husband, John. The cafe is brighter, more comfortable and there is now a great range of teas, coffees and other drinks as well as lovely cakes and other goodies on offer. Thanks very much to them for allowing us to meet there free of charge.
There were 19 participants this time and it really was lovely to see that about half of those attending ...
With Martin Poole
Jan. 8, 2020, 7.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m. (GMT)
Free
Death Cafe events occur every second Wednesday of every second month at different venues throughout the Wirral.
This event is completely free of charge but tea, coffee and cake will ...
Death Cafe write up: Death Cafe Wirral
Posted by Martin Poole on July 16, 2019, 10:19 a.m.
My first event in Hoylake brought 24 participants to drink tea, eat cake and discuss death back in May. This time we tried a different venue and had 12 participants.
Stollies in Wallasey Village is a lovely cafe and is a great place to relax and chat and it as has very friendly management. They had, however, recently decided not to put any posters up in their windows to advertise events, as they had recently been inundated and their windows were getting to be a bit of a mess. It’s a situation I understand but having spoken to the management, they too agreed that perhaps in future ...
With Martin Poole
Sept. 11, 2019, 7.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m. (GMT)
Free
This is the third Death Cafe that I have run and I endeavour to run further Death Cafe events on the second Wednesday of every second month at different venues ...
With Martin Poole
July 10, 2019, 7.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m. (GMT)
Free
This is the second Death Cafe that I have run and I endeavour to run further Death Cafe events on the second Wednesday of every second month at different venues ...
Death Cafe write up: Death Cafe Wirral
Posted by Martin Poole on May 14, 2019, 9:42 a.m.
On the 8th May 2019 I hosted my first Death Cafe event at Hoylake Parade Community Centre. It seems to have gone down well, so future events are planned on a bi-monthly basis at various venues on the Wirral and we’ll see how that goes.
The community centre kindly provided us with the space for free. Tea, coffee and cakes were on sale and most of the 24 attendees took advantage of this by making a purchase. I envisage future events to work in the same way.
I posted details of the event on various websites where I could post for free and copied the details to ...
The article in the newspaper and online was the same - but with a different headline.
Wirral Globe: https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/17583723.pop-up-death-cafe-coming-to-hoylake-next-month/
With Martin Poole
May 8, 2019, 7.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m. (GMT)
Free
This is the first Death Cafe that I have run, but I shall endeavour to run further Death Cafe events on the second Wednesday of the month at different venues ...