Report back from first US Death Cafe
A write up of First Death Cafe in the US!
Thursday night’s Death Café event in Columbus, Ohio was a pleasant way to spend the evening. Although it was hot and muggy outside, 13 brave participants came to gather with strangers to talk about death.
More than half of the attendees who RSVP’d ended up not attending. Those in attendance could relate, and described their own nervousness about what the evening would entail. However, as we sat down and began to talk with one another, the tensions eased and the conversation flowed.
We talked about a wide variety of topics under the sun including but not at all limited to: caregiving responsibilities , funeral customs, obituaries, legacies, hospice, regrets, advanced directives, ironic ways to die, and cultural differences in philosophies of death.
Here are some words used to describe the event by the attendees: A great beginning, Accepting, Casual, comfortable, connecting, educational, engaging, enlightening, eye opening, fascinating, illuminating, insightful, interesting, meaningful, open, perspectives, relaxed, satisfying, thought provoking, understand, warm.
One attendee said the event was morbid, depressing and weird and then put a smiley face with a “just kidding.”
Another attendee described his response to the event, “This was a great experience. I was engrossed with the richness, quality and sincerity of the other participants. Conversation is fluid & freeflowing & yet respectful and productive.”
None of the attendees could possibly have anticipated that three hours after the event, there would be another mass killing tragedy in the national news in Aurora, Colorado. Our hearts go out to the survivors and the victim’s families.
A hearty thank you goes to the Kickstarter donors who made this event possible:
Brian Akers
Dianna Barrett
Stephen Bierline
Darren Brew
Amy Brown
Vanessa Callison-Burch
Irina Ceaparu
Kasia Chalko
Jim Cleary
Meredith Cole
Jennifer Cotton
Christopher Dowden
Jean Egan
Vicki Fitts
Del Gaddie
Allison Gibson
John Gury
Chris Harper
Deborah Harvey
Alex Hogan
Jerri Lynn Hogg
Shelly Immel
Lori Jander
Mike Johnson
Alex Jones
Michelle Kozak
Liz Kroger
Simone Linke
Bridget McCrate Protus
Mike Moore
Catherine Murray
Lyn O'Brien
Kimberly Ogle
Nina Pelletier
Jen Poklar
Earl Quijada
Janice Rapp
Daniel Raymer
Beth Santore
Howard Shaw III
Christian Sinclair
Don Snyder
Laurie Stevenson
Amy Stevenson
Kate Storm
Jim Sullivan
Zac Thomas
Arianna Warfel
Vanessa Wargo
Julian Wimbush
Janice Williams