October Death Cafe Iowa
A write up of October Death Cafe Iowa
For October’s Death Cafe Iowa we met at Palmers Deli & Market on Ingersoll. Buffy Peters and Becca Suvalsky (members of the Bereavement Professionals Group) facilitated the group. We had three people in attendance, 2 women and 1 man, and participants ranged in ages and professions. Members brought several interesting topics to the group this month.
We have recently noticed a growing number of podcasts that discuss death and dying. One group member started listing to a new podcast called “Last Day” that discusses the opioid epidemic and shares some stories of individual's last day before they died from a drug overdose. Another podcast that was mentioned was Chelsea Handler’s new podcast “Life Will Be The Death Of Me”. In a recent episode, she had Laura Lyn Jackson who is a psych on to discuss signs and communicating with those who have died. This sparked a conversation among group members about different personal experiences and different signs they have received. We also discussed Caitlyn Doughty’s new book “Will my Cat Eat my Eyeballs?” and one group member shared about how the book answers a lot of questions that he never knew he wanted to know the answer to. An example he shared was what happens if someone dies in space and how protocols are in place if it should ever happen. We also discussed public tragedies and how these events such as September 11th must be very painful for the survivors. One member shared that it would be like having to see pictures from a car accident that killed your loved one.
Each member contributed personal examples and experiences throughout the Death Cafe. We look forward to more conversation next month!