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Death Café offers an open environment for Winnipeggers to talk about death, grieving

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg. Facebook

It’s happening on Halloween and it’s called a “Death Café”, but an upcoming event at a Wellington Crescent church isn’t as morbid as you might expect.

The event, organizer Liz Redston told 680 CJOB, is an opportunity for Winnipeggers to have an open conversation about death, dying, and grieving.

“It is serious, but I would call them almost joyful events, in that people seem to have a really good time opening up and talking about death,” said Redston.

“There’s no specific agenda, there’s no purpose or intention to take people to any logical or directed for of conversation.

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“There’s a few question prompts on the table, and that is as structured as it gets. Open up, let people talk about death, dying, grief… whatever they want to talk about.”

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Redston said one of the goals of the Death Café – which takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday at the 1st Unitarian Universalist Church – is to normalize the conversation around issues that we all have to deal with eventually.

“There’s a long list of reasons why we’re all just a bit fearful or reluctant to talk about death, dying and grief, and yet it’s the one thing we have in common as people,” she said.

“Our goal in all of this is to help normalize conversations… so that we all feel a little more comfortable.

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