A monthly Death Café is returning to Eccles Library this Friday.
The Café, which is a free, informal gathering of adults to discuss death, dying and bereavement, began their monthly meetups in September last year.
Caroline Jones, the death coach and funeral celebrant who runs the Death Café, said: “It’s a really friendly, safe, open and respectful space.
“It gives people the opportunity to have these conversations with strangers before they go home and have them with loved ones.”
The Café runs in a private room at Eccles Library between 1:30-3:30pm on the last Friday of every month.
Everyone is welcome to attend and all faiths and religions are accepted.
Caroline continued: “I don’t come with a set agenda or a list of topics to cover. It’s very much about discussing what the people who attend have on their mind.”
Her personal experience with grief inspired her venture into death coaching, her career as a celebrant, and eventually the establishment of the Eccles Death Café.
Caroline, who was born and raised in Eccles, said: “When my dad died, there was this sense of: ‘Does he even want us all around staring at him? Would he hate this?’
“I wished so much that we’d had those conversations beforehand.”
The first death café was run by Jon Underwood and his mother, Sue Barksy Reid, in London in 2011.
They have since expanded globally, operated by different people in over 90 countries.
Caroline added: “The idea originally was to give people with a terminal diagnosis a space to talk, but it has expanded. Basically, anyone can come because we’re all mortal.
“And Cake! We always have cake. We always have hot drinks. If that doesn’t get you through the door, I don’t know what will.”
Caroline will also be helping to run a coffin decorating workshop in Eccles Library on the 27 April.
The event, which is free to attend, will see guests decorate a cardboard coffin, which will later be displayed in the library.
More information on the Death Café and Caroline’s other events can be found on her website or Facebook page.
