Stockton Springs Community Library’s “Neighbors Helping Neighbors”  invites you attend a Death Café on May 18. 

Chuck Lakin and Nancy McAlley will lead the all day conference, which will deal with issues related to end of life, death and choices. The event will be held at the Stockton Springs Town Hall on Friday, May 18, 2018. 9 am – 4 pm.  Lunch is offered along with morning and afternoon snacks. All are welcome, but pre-registration is required.

Death Café is not a physical location, but is an event hosted at someone’s house, library or other pop-up/ temporary venue. The official objective of a death café is to help people make the most of their finite lives. Individuals can discuss their understanding, thoughts, dreams, fears and all other areas of death and dying at these events.

Nancy McAlley is a retired nurse with extensive end-of-life care experience. She is also an interfaith minister, a home funeral advocate, and a member of Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County and the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maine.

Chuck Lakin is a home funeral educator who teaches people how to make their own wooden coffins, which he says are usually cheaper and can be decorated.

For more information about what to expect at a death café event, we recommend two Bangor Daily News online articles. Meg Haskell’s 14 September 2017 article in the Bangor Daily News titled ‘Death cafes’ serve up end-of-life conversation, planning, which discusses  Lakin’s work and an article by Abigail Curtis, 17 April 2013 highlighting McAlley called Midcoast ‘Death Cafes’ create safe space to talk about death .

Limited seating. Prior-registration is required for this event. Call SSCL to sign-up: 207-567-4147 or stop by the library to register in person.