Death Café Burlington

In Celebration of National Advance Care Planning Day, Death Café Burlington will be held on April 12th, 2017 from 7-9pm at Saving Thyme.

Death Café is an international movement where people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death. The objective is 'to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’.

At Death Cafe, you can expect a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than grief support or a counselling session. It is a respectful, public event where people of all communities and belief systems are welcome to have discussions about death. Interesting conversation is guaranteed!

To register for this free event in support of the Compassionate City Charter, please visit Death Café Burlington

For more information about Death Café, please visit http://deathcafe.com/ 

#Dying is Inevitable. #Living is Not. "#Love is Stonger Than #Death" Rest in Awesome Esther.

"Wayne Earl reveals the power of living and loving life by sharing the wisdom of his daughter, Esther Earl, who lost her battle with cancer just before her 16th birthday. Esther's courage, positive spirit and hope for the future transformed all who knew her. She showed the world what it meant to live life before death (via her well known vlogs and blogs) and that love is the engine of life. Esther Earl shared her spark of possibility with great generosity and was the inspiration for author John Green's #1 New York Times bestseller, The Fault In our Stars.

Wayne Earl recently authored the compelling life story of his daughter, Esther Grace, who succumbed to cancer shortly before her 16th birthday. Before she died, a deepening friendship with her favorite author, John Green, greatly encouraged her. The friendship also inspired Mr. Green, most notably in his writing of the world- renowned novel, The Fault in Our Stars, which he dedicated to Esther. The Earl Family founded the non-profit organization, This Star Won't Go Out, to help ease the financial burdens of families caring for children with cancer."

#Dying is About #Living. ~ Metastatic Me

"One lives with a terminal illness by taking each day as it comes.  In the beginning, I would tell myself that I wasn't going to die that day, and that I wasn't going to die the next day or even the next week.  After time, the days started to accrue.  Slowly but surely, plans were made; goals were set.

And so I learned that dying is really about living.  

It's about taking each day for what it is, piecing together something good in it, and moving on to the next day.  It's about planning for the future, while simulatenously planning for a future without you.  It's about understanding the limitations that being sick puts on you, accepting those constraints, and doing things anyway.  It's about simplifying your day to day life to enjoy more time to do the things that bring you joy".

"Before I go". ~ Dr. Paul Kalanithi

"Time for me is double-edged: Every day brings me further from the low of my last cancer relapse, but every day also brings me closer to the next cancer recurrence — and eventually, death. Perhaps later than I think, but certainly sooner than I desire. There are, I imagine, two responses to that realization. The most obvious might be an impulse to frantic activity: to “live life to its fullest,” to travel, to dine, to achieve a host of neglected ambitions. Part of the cruelty of cancer, though, is not only that it limits your time, it also limits your energy, vastly reducing the amount you can squeeze into a day. It is a tired hare who now races. But even if I had the energy, I prefer a more tortoiselike approach. I plod, I ponder, some days I simply persist".

"My Marriage Didn’t End When I Became a Widow". ~ Dr. Lucy Kalanithi

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"One night recently, alone in bed, I read “A Grief Observed” by C.­S. Lewis, and I came across the observation that “bereavement is not the truncation of married love but one of its regular phases.” He writes that “what we want is to live our marriage well and faithfully through that phase, too.” Yes, I breathed. Bereavement is more than learning to separate from a spouse. Though I can no longer comfort Paul, the other vows I made on our wedding day — to love Paul, to honor and keep him — stretch well beyond death. The commitment and loyalty, my desire to do right by him, especially as I raise our daughter, will never end". 

Lucy Kalanithi is an internist at Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center. She wrote the epilogue to her late husband Paul Kalanithi’s forthcoming book, “When Breath Becomes Air.”

Op-Ed 'I have terminal cancer. And I'm dying in a yearish.'

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"I understand that my infinitesimally tiny piece in all this is coming to a close. Letting go will be difficult, but death has its own clock. So I will take solace in the idea that, once gone, I may come to occupy a small space in the hearts of the people who loved me most. And perhaps from there, I will be a source of a few simple reminders: Time is limited. Life is miraculous. And we are beautiful".