Wed 4/10 @ 7pm
By John Benson
Perhaps it’s all of this Facebooking and emailing that has taken the face-to-face out of the social dynamic.
The result is people are looking for any excuse whatsoever to share a coffee, break bread or simply interact. For those folks who can’t seem to shake the idea of their mortality or are known in the past to have had seriously awkward conversations about death with family members, friends or strangers, there’s something new coming to town to scratch that conversational itch. Also, naturally, there’s coffee and cake.
If there was ever a reason to discuss the old HBO series Six Feet Under, here it is. It’s called the Death Café and it’s scheduled for Wed 4/10 at the Gypsy Beans & Baking Co. on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland.
Cool Cleveland talked to Chelsea Gumucio, a liaison social worker who works for eFuneral, which is sponsoring the Death Café, about this interesting evening of presumably smiling faces and death talk.
Cool Cleveland: Wow, what a unique event. What exactly is a Death Café?
Chelsea Gumucio: This is basically where people get together in an informal setting and talk about death, dying and anything else that comes up. They got started with a Swiss sociologist. He was talking about death in public settings and started these café [discussions]. I guess they got picked up by a guy in Great Britain who started hosting them in his basement. They started talking about death over cake and coffee and tea. He decided to do more and created a website and the idea has been popping up ever since. Last year they had their first Death Café in Columbus with a hospice social worker there. It was the first one in the U.S. And now they’re popping up all over the U.S.
How did you get involved with Cleveland’s first Death Café?
I’m doing this with a hospice social worker. Our point is I used to work with hospice and a lot of people would share stories with me every time I told them what I did. I just figured you could put together this café. People could come together, share their stories and kind of come up with their bucket list. Things they want to get accomplished before we all kind of face death.
Is this as simple as talking about things that we normally don’t talk about in public?
That’s right; we’re trying to take the taboo out of this and make it an open discussion. Really, people probably think about death a lot more than they talk about, so we’re just allowing that for people to come and share their thoughts. People end up having fun. It can be very serious but people talk about what songs they’d like to play at their funeral or is it better to die suddenly or have time? There’s all kinds of questions that come up.
Just to be clear, this isn’t designed for those who are perhaps terminally ill or have recently dealt with death in their life?
It’s open to the public but it’s not really a support group. It’s not necessarily for terminally ill. It’s more for people who just want to come and discuss possibly their end of life plans who just have questions. People who just want to share. It’s not necessarily for people who have just experienced a death where it’s kind of fresh. People will feel enlightened, get to hear about other perspectives. They can air out some of their thoughts about death and hopefully they’ll come away with a perspective that life is short and we can do things now to start planning for the future.
Finally, are you pro or con regarding death?
Am I pro or con regarding death? [Silence.] I guess it’s inevitable so I guess I’m pro death.
Cleveland’s first Death Café takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Wed 4/10 at Gypsy Beans & Baking Company, 6425 Detroit Ave., Cleveland. You can RSVP http://deathcafecleveland.eventbrite.com. More info here.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.