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Death Café at ‘After Life’ Exhibition gets people talking

Posted on June 30th, 2017

We held our second Death Café in Colchester to run alongside Hollytrees Museum’s ‘After Life’ Exhibition on Saturday 24th June to help people open up about the taboo subject of dying.

Seventeen people attended our Death Café for a day of reflection and discussion about death and making the most of life over a cup of tea and slice of cake.

The informal event allowed an open forum of discussion covering everything from what happens after you die to how we can make the most of life.
The coinciding ‘After Life’ exhibition will continue to run until November to showcase death and the period following it, both for the deceased and for those who feel their loss.

It includes a collection of items from Roman graves, Victorian memorial jewellery and a selection of objects placed at the war memorial after Princess Diana’s death twenty years ago.

Tim Young, Portfolio Holder for Business and Culture at Colchester Borough Council, said “Death is a universal human experience which transcends time, culture and place.

It can be an intensely personal experience but also bring communities together in shared grief and ritual.

We are pleased that the exhibition and the death café has given people a space to learn about and reflect on a challenging subject.”

Lee Jaschok, Director of Freedom Funerals, has made helping people through difficult times his vocation and feels that death should be discussed more openly, saying: “Everyone should have the freedom to choose and choice is as important in death as it is in life.

This exhibition allowed people to see how important our ancestors considered death and celebrating our loved ones.

It was great to see so many people coming together to share stories and listen to others in our Death Cafe and inspire conversation and thoughts that helped to change their outlook on life and death.”