Report Back from Death Cafe in Sebastian, Indian River County, Florida

Photo by http://www.indianriverbyair.com/

By Marie Pedrick

On July 22, our group experienced the first Indian River County Death Cafe!

Our facilitator was Angie Messner, she is a thanatologist with over 20years in instuction on death and dying and also bereavement. She presented the guideline and concepts for the cafe and directed the group, another core member helping. This was Eula who operates her own business in the medical records field, and who was our contact person and scheduler. Sue Keler, an LPN with many years of hands on experience in bedside nursing in and out of hospice kept our contact lists and provided flyers, evaluation forms and all paperwork. I am Marie Pedrick, an RN with over 35 years experience, mostly emergency room and intensive care. I have very recently started in the world of hospice at a local inpatient facility. I helped establish venues, distribute flyers and work on our facebook page, Indian River Death Cafe.

We were delighted with the turnout at both the morning and evening sessions. In retrospect, two in one day was daunting. the topics were varied and intiguing. We kept it free form as suggested and let it take its own form, and it did. Each guest brought a different perspective to the conversation. the group ranged in age from 46-85 with a good representation of both men and women. vocalized were topics from the afterlife, if there is one, to spiritual influences, to the lack of death awareness in our culture. Reincarnation entered the talk, as did funeral and will planning. contact with those departed in relation to our dream and awake states of life were added.

The reponse was positive, everyone who attended requested further gatherings. We are skipping august due to holidays, but we plan to resume in september with bimonthly meetings in different parts of the county to open to all. dates and times to follow.