The Metropolis

Hackney has a death cafe where strangers eat cake and talk about oblivion

Mike Pollitt | Tuesday 27 September, 2011 10:47

UPDATE: Read our review of an afternoon at the death cafe here.

Jayd Kent went to it.

I attended something called a ‘Death Cafe’ today. I was terrified at the concept of sitting in a room, with a random group of people I had never met, to talk about the one thing that terrifies me more than anything in the world – death. I had been worrying about it quietly all week.

The cafe seeks to promote a healthy openness about our inevitable march into the remorseless jaws of doom. And while we’re chatting about death, yesterday I chanced upon this quote by Jonathan Franzen:

…the fundamental fact about all of us is that we’re alive for a while but will die before long. This fact is the real root cause of all our anger and pain and despair.

Makes you think, doesn’t it? Now then, who’s for a nice cup of tea?

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