Amy, thanks so much for the class about Death Cafes. It was such a practical session. I feel inspired and motivated to do this in my community. This question is for you, but for everyone also! Are you allowed to play with the Death Cafe concept? I know you said it being free is critical…but a month or so ago I had this inspiration of a Death Dinner Party. Getting either together a 6-8 known, or unknown people to share the topic of death over a meal. Does anyone know of this being done? Is it a bit too left of centre? Or any advice?

Hey! I took part in my first Death Café last Saturday and I loved it. One of the things that I noticed was that, besides the 2 facilitators who were palliative care nurses, I, a celebrant, was there, and there was also someone making beautiful wooden sculptures for graves and a couple of singers for ceremonies.. This observation seemed to show that we need a place to meet as a network and become more visible together! So, as I have some capacity and experience for that, I am taking the first steps to get it started with the 2 palliative care nurses. We imagined that having a common website that gathers all actors in the ecosystem of death in our city would be a good start, and then meeting up and hopefully having collaborations etc. This would include the traditional actors such as funeral directors, palliative care, priests, but also death doulas, celebrants etc. Do any of you have such a webpage and/or network in your area? Would you share your experience and the website if there is such a thing? Regarding the name, we were joking with "The Death Portal" but it might be a bit too much for a start.. :) Any experience or tip is welcome! Thanks! Johanna

I recently received this email from a counsellor looking for death care workers around Ontario & Quebec? Let me know if you’d like me to put you in touch with her… 🙏

I've been doing a series of videos for my community to outline the various body disposal options that are and aren't available in Australia. I'm quite taken with the recompose movement in the US (https://recompose.life/), and also open pyres. I'm wondering if there are any advocacy movements for either of these things (but I feel the recompose would be more successful than pyres at this point!). If so, can you point me that way, because I'd love to join. If there's none, can anyone explain why this is the case?

Hello! There is a strong trend here on the west coast of Canada toward cremation with no viewing of the body, and then no funeral or memorial service after. The sentiment comes from wanting to keep things simple, low cost, and not "burden" the family. I'm a funeral director who does a lot of pre-need arrangements (meaning when people want to pre-arrange/pre-pay their cremation ahead of time) so I have a sweet spot to gently challenge folks who want their families to just "toss their cremated remains in the ocean and get on with life". But because I'm talking to these people as a funeral director, I think it can seem like I'm trying to get them to spend more money. I'm not. I'm truly trying to create the invitation for their family to be more engaged. I would LOVE to hear how folks in this community are challenging this trend - if it is in fact similar in Australia, the UK, the US, and beyond! Thanks :)