There are a handful of conversation topics that many people consider uncomfortable — politics and religion come to mind. Ooh. And money. Awwwkward.

We’ve all been there — stuck between awkward and more awkward. | Gif by Giphy

Chloé here, I’m about to take us to an even more uneasy place, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s talk about death, specifically demystifying it — that’s what one local program is aiming to do with a series of events between now and October.

In partnership with The Chattery, Welcome Home of Chattanooga, which provides shelter + services for those who have nowhere else to go for hospice services, is providing public programming with opportunities for people to talk and learn about end-of-life care, death and dying.

The word
○ Demystify: (verb) make (a difficult or esoteric subject) clearer and easier to understand.

Quoteworthy

“I think that people want to have opportunities to talk about [death],” the organization’s Director Sherry Cunningham said. “Plenty of people don’t want to — that’s our society. But we want to provide these opportunities because then when we become more comfortable with death, maybe we’ll be more comfortable visiting friends in hospice or more comfortable with taking care of [a dying parent].”

The events

Welcome Home of Chattanooga’s 2020 program started with a Thursday death café (we’ll get to what that is in a minute), includes a day-long conference in October and a November event about grief during the holidays.

○ Final Gifts: Stories from the Bedside | Thurs., March 19 | 6-8 p.m. | The Chattery, 1800 Rossville Ave. | Free, RSVP | This is a special open mic night when you can share stories about losing a loved one or listen to others. It’s meant to be cathartic, challenging and healing.

○ Death Café | Thurs., May 14 | | 6-8 p.m. | The Chattery, 1800 Rossville Ave. | A death café is when strangers come together (usually eat cake or drink tea) and discuss death. There’s usually no agenda or themes, just open discussion.

○ Demystifying Death and Dying | Fri., Oct. 2 | 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | TBD | Author of “Without Regrets” Helen Emmott will be featured.

Full list of events here.