Students in the sociology class Death and Dying will host a Death Café at 1 p.m. Dec. 4, in Building M, room 217 at Highland Community College, 2998 W. Pearl City Rd., Freeport, Ill.
The aim of this event is to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their lives. This is part of an international movement that includes more than 6,000 events in 56 countries. This is a chance to discuss the topic with others while drinking coffee, tea and eating cake.
“When people hear I teach a course on death and dying they assume it’s a really depressing course, and some of the topics we cover are certainly very sad, but talking about death is actually a really great way to better understand and appreciate life,” said Julie Hartman-Link, Sociology instructor. “As far as what people can expect at the event, we have had some wonderful and insightful conversations about our society’s relationship to death all semester in our class, and this Café is an opportunity for others in our community to engage in that conversation with us.”
The Death Cafe model was developed by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid, based on the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who organized “café mortals” Inspired by Bernard’s work, Jon Underwood immediately decided to use similar model for his own project, and Death Cafe was born. For more information visit deathcafe.com.