Join the Albuquerque Death Cafe online! It’s an opportunity to talk about what’s on your mind about mortality issues. We have people from across the U.S. and around the world joining in the conversation on Zoom. The next session will be held on Sunday, February 12 at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
Prepare to settle in with your own cup of tea or coffee, and a nourishing snack. We’ll have an interesting, unstructured conversation that’s open and free-flowing with no specific agenda. It’s always different every time.
To keep this meeting secure, this meeting link will only be provided to those who RSVP through Meetup. So click here to please let us know if you’ll attend!
If you’d like to make a donation, use this PayPal link: https://bit.ly/GRDonation.
About The Death Cafe
The Death Cafe concept was started in the United Kingdom by Jon Underwood. He was influenced by the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who started holding Cafe Mortel events in France and Switzerland. At these events, people come together in a relaxed, confidential and safe setting to discuss death, drink tea (or your favorite beverage) and eat delicious cake or cookies. Bernard Crettaz recently died on November 28, 2022.
Jon Underwood, founder of the Death Cafe movement
Sadly, Jon Underwood, founder of the Death Cafe movement, died suddenly in June 2017 at the age of 44 from a brain hemorrhage caused by undiagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells. The news was reported by his family on the Death Cafe website. News obituaries appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times.
The Death Cafe Movement Grows
Jon’s mother Sue Barsky Reid and Jon’s sister Jools Barsky continue Jon’s Death Cafe work, as he requested. To date, the Death Cafe movement has grown to more than 15,160 events in 82 countries worldwide (as of December, 2022). For information on how to hold a Death Cafe in your community, review the information at www.DeathCafe.com. Albuquerque was the site of the second Death Cafe held in the United States. Gail Rubin hosted this pioneering event in September of 2012. Lizzy Miles held the first Death Cafe outside the U.K. in Columbus, Ohio in August of 2012.
Read more about Death Cafes here.
Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death and Death Cafe host.
Your Death Cafe Host
Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist and The Doyenne of Death®, is a pioneering death educator. She works with organizations to connect them with baby boomers concerned about end-of-life issues. A featured speaker at TEDxABQ in 2015, she’s the author of three books on end-of-life issues, including A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die and KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. In a previous lifetime, she was a public relations professional and an event planner.
Gail Rubin was one of the first people in the United States to hold a Death Cafe. She was recognized with the 2019 Women of Influence award by Albuquerque Business First. Find out why.