Day 4: Dying Matters Awareness Week

It is now Day 4 of Dying Matters Awareness Week and we still have a number of exciting events happening across Liverpool! Here are the events for today:

 

 

The Death in Art tour was well received on Tuesday and is extremely interesting. So don’t worry if you missed out on that, come along to the session today from 1-2pm.

 

Our very own Life and Death Café will be taking place from 2:30-4pm. The layout is very similar to a 'Death Cafe', however The Bucket Project are working in partnership with Cheshire Living Well Dying Well to host the event, which encompasses the life element. This is a safe and comfortable environment for people to discuss life and death, whilst enjoying free tea, coffee and cake. You do not need to book for this event so come along and join in, you might just be pleasantly surprised!

 

Don’t forget, the interactive lettering, postcards and Remembrance Tree are available all week in the Walker and Central Library, respectively.

 

For more information, email amy.king@mariecurie.org.uk.

A Successful Second Death Cafe

As you may be aware, our second ever Death Café took place yesterday at the No. 8 Main Street Coffee café in Woolton. It was a great success and involved extremely interesting conversation, good company and wonderful refreshments.

 

A wonderful selection of refreshments at the Death Café

 

This was the first Death Café I had ever attended and I am pleased to announce that it involved truly thought-provoking conversation. The name may be off-putting to many people, but if you look past the vocabulary you may find it can be a freeing and fascinating experience. Topics discussed ranged from eating animals to what happens after we are gone, producing some very interesting and unusual ideas.

One thought that struck me throughout was that these conversations, some remarkably philosophical in nature, remind me of the type of exchanges had after an evening of inebriation (which we do not condone) and that it’s upsetting that we have to lower our inhibitions before we can discuss such important topics. In my opinion it was refreshing to talk about ideas with other like-minded people and some of their comments completely changed the way I think about things. One moment in particular was that of a small reading shared by one of the attendees from the Muriel Spark book ‘Memento Mori’, the end of the excerpt read:

 

‘[Death] should be part of the full expectancy of life.  Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid. You might as well live on the whites of eggs’

I found the last sentence particularly profound, but I shall leave you to decide what your own thoughts are on this extract.

 

Listening to an impromptu excerpt reading

 

I would definitely recommend people try out a Death Café in your area, even if you are apprehensive at first, there is no pressure for you to speak and you are welcome to leave at any time. You might just be pleasantly surprised.

 

 

Some members mid-discussion

If you have suggestions for a future Death Café or would like to be involved in future events, do not hesitate to contact us at amy.king@mariecurie.org.uk or chat with us via Facebook and Twitter.

Death Cafe Woolton

Due to the success of our last Death Café, we have decided to run our next one in the charming No. 8 – Main Street Coffee café, Woolton, L25 5JA on the 24th February 2014. We are very excited about our second event and are proud to be hosting it in such a welcoming and unique venue. It will be a comfortable place where we can have open and honest conversation about death.

As we have mentioned in a previous article, the Death Café is a global initiative stemming from the original Café Mortels in Switzerland, aiming to increase the awareness of death to help people make the most of their lives. There has been a tremendous response to Death Café’s across the country and worldwide, evidencing the need for a comfortable place for people to relax and openly discuss death.

Free Cupcakes at the Death Cafe!
(Image from eatitdetroit.com)

This event is completely free with complimentary sandwiches, cake, tea and interesting conversation! The Café will take place from 4-6pm and we invite you to join us for what will be an intriguing evening.

Book your place now and join the discussion by emailing amy.king@mariecurie.org.uk. We look forward to seeing you there!

In case you are not familiar with Woolton, here is a handy map to help you out:

No.8 - Main Street Coffee, Woolton, L25 5JA
(Google Maps)

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