A Death Cafe is a space for talking openly about death but with no agenda, no desired outcome other than to open the conversation in a relaxed, informal and safe space. The stated objective on the Death Café website is to ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.’ A Death Cafe is not a grief support group nor is it a group counseling session and generally not appropriate for the recently bereaved. Death Cafés are not trying to sell you anything nor are they designed to lead you to any specific conclusion. The goal is simply to open discussion on topics related to death, which generally arise from the group assembled. And there is always tea and cake.

Mert Brubaker is a trained End of Life Doula, an elder care giver and Care Navigator for Valley Village in Harrisonburg. She was a Physical Therapist for many years before embarking on a journey that led through stained glass art, art retreats for personal spiritual growth, dreamwork, Depth Psychology and some coursework in counseling, all leading to this work in helping the dying face into the very last part of their own journey.

Jennifer Perry is a certified Kundalini Yoga Level I teacher, as well as a certified teacher of Radiant Child Yoga. She has completed her Master Level III Reiki training and is pursuing further study and certification in yoga and various other healing modalities. Jennifer is co-founder of smallSEEDS, a small business devoted to offerings of Kundalini Yoga, Reiki, permaculture training, and community connection.