The last breath

What might you expect if you were to attend a death cafe?

Our death cafe today started with a joke about a mother-in-law, who had been on holiday in the Holy Land but had sadly died. The husband was asked whether he would want her flown home for £5000 or buried in the Holy Land for £150. He was torn but elected for her to be flown home. The attendant was surprised and asked why when, financially, it was vastly more expensive. The man took a breath and said “Well, 2000 years ago a man died and was buried in the Holy Land, and three days later came back to life. I can’t take the risk“…

Do we expect jokes at a death cafe?

We also had a poem called: Imagine a life without timekeeping

You probably can’t. You know the month, the year the day of the week. There is a clock on the wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a programme on the TV. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. 

Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man suffers a paralysing fear no other creature endures. 

A fear of time running out.

Poem by Mitch Albom: The Minds Journal

Talking about breath

We often hear of the great concern regarding death, but I wonder whether we are more scared of dying than of death itself? Over the recent decades, medical systems have become so successful in keeping us a live whereupon decades before we wold have died much earlier. Kathryn Mannix, a palliative care doctor of many years, gave a TED Talk about taking that last breath. It sounds so painful, so distinct, sudden to our ears, to our senses – but we aren’t the person who is dying. I invite you to watch this video of her TED talk – there is no gore, no medical bedside images, just words from a palliative care doctor who has such experience.

What are our reactions to the video? Surprise? It may be a good one to reflect one quietly as the conclusions are not as expected, for we aren’t the one who is dying. As one person said, “I wished I had heard that before they had died“.

We also heard about the ‘last breath’ as the undertaker removes the body and air escapes; something not expected by family.

Suicide Prevention Day – 10 Sep

It might have passed us by but many will have noted that it was Suicide Prevention day last Sunday. Here are some numbers you might feel are handy for yourself or someone else.

Samaritans – for everyone Call 116 123 Email jo@samaritans.org	Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) Call 0800 58 58 58 – 5pm to midnight every day Visit the webchat page
Childline – for children and young people under 19 Call 0800 1111 – the number will not show up on your phone bill	Papyrus – prevention of young suicide HOPELINE247 Call 0800 068 41 41 Text 07860 039967 Email pat@papyrus-uk.org

Alternative means

Some were interested in the alternatives again to cremation and burial, due to the purchase of funeral plans. We might seek to remove the anxiety people face upon our death, but in the time it might take what alternatives might then exist. What of the very much more eco-friendly resomation process?

Finally, some of the ‘cartoons’ that we lay around the room as people enter