Group dealing with death over coffee

A new-aged group wants to make death a topic casual enough to talk about over a coffee.

The group is called the Death Cafe, a worldwide initiative that has now reached Invercargill.

The group holds conversations about death, from funeral arrangements and bucket lists, to hot topics such as euthanasia and suicide.

Death Cafe organiser Melanie Mayell said euthanasia was a big topic of conversation.

‘‘Some people might have a staunch view on the conversation at one stage in life and that can change.’’

The name ‘‘Death Cafe’’ was designed to be direct to exhibit how taboo the word ‘‘death’’ had become in Western society.

‘‘It’s quite confronting. People are squeamish about that very word but why are we?

‘‘It’s the one promise we are all born with, we are all going to die and yet it is the one thing we are least able to discuss comfortably,’’ she said.

Mayell believed New Zealand, particularly European cultures, had a problem with death literacy.

‘‘Ma¯ori have an amazing relationship with death, and beautiful rituals and ceremonies, but Pa¯keha¯ from English descent have issues because the English were so emotionally repressed.’’

‘‘We didn’t express our emotions very well and death was done by professionals.’’

Mayell organises regular meetings in Christchurch but flew into Invercargill to host this one because of the popular interest in the group in Southland.

She was inspired to start the Christchurch Death Cafe when she published a book Goodbye: For times of Sadness and Loss, and came to realise how uncomfortable she felt about the topic of death.

‘‘People would come up and share sad feelings of loss with me and I would feel really awkward or embarrassed, which drove me to discover the value of death literacy.’’

The meeting on Saturday was the second time a death cafe had been hosted in Invercargill. An Otago grandmother has been cheated out of Six60 tickets for her granddaughter.

Margrette Hapuku, of Mosgiel, bought two tickets last month to the band’s upcoming Dunedin concert – or so she thought.

But the 15th birthday surprise resulted in her losing her money.

The two general admission standing tickets, which normally sell for $89.90, were offered for $60 each on a closed Dunedin Facebook page in January.

The seller, listed as Matthew

ROBYN EDIE/STUFF Melanie Mayell, left, founder and host of the Christchurch Death Cafe, and Jasmine Stanley, support worker for the Loss and Grief centre in Invercargill. Bike rides were among events at the Winton Fun Run yesterday. About 350 entries in total were received for the running, walking and biking events that started and finished at the Central Southland College. The Central Southland Community Swimming Pool committee organises the fun run annually to raise money for maintenance and running costs of the pool. Committee president Maria Scammell said $10,000 was raised this year, with Winton businesses being a big contributor. Everill Cocker was presented with life membership to the swimming pool committee. He has been on the committee for more than 30 years. ROBYN EDIE/STUFF