When death and dying comes up in conversation, there seem to be two distinct responses. Frequently, people just want to avoid the whole topic. At the same time, there is a growing number of people willing to embrace this challenging conversation. At some point in our lives, each one of us will be touched by death. Yet, somehow, many of us prefer to ignore it. Do we think we can avoid death by keeping our heads down and looking away? Maybe we feel it is a downer or morbid. Or we worry that it might bring up negative thoughts or emotions and upset others.
There is an alternative. What if we saw death as a transition, a normal part of life, and recognized that in accepting death, we can learn to live more fully?
The Sunshine Coast Hospice Society will explore these and other questions during an evening of information and dialogue June 22, 7 p.m. at the Chatelech Secondary School Theatre. This thought-provoking community dialogue is a collaboration between Coast Hospice and members of the shíshálh Nation. It brings together two cultures to investigate differences and discover commonalities in response to this often challenging topic.
The program includes two speakers, each with different but related perspectives on death and dying. Dr. Doris Barwich considers it an honour to have looked after thousands of dying people and their families across Canada and in South Africa. As the executive director of the BC Centre for Palliative Care, she has encouraged innovation throughout the province in advance care planning, compassionate communities and palliative care and has been very involved in the movement, and now legislation, to provide choice for people at the end of their lives.
Eugene Harry is a First Nations Elder who is often invited here to perform ceremony when a First Nations person is dying. Harry (XiQuelem) is a member of the Cowichan Tribes and is a Squamish Nation Wisdom Keeper. He is a Shaker Church minister in the Squamish Nation and also works at Vancouver Native Health. He has been cultural advisor at the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society since 2007 and is a respected storyteller and teacher. He will be sharing the practices he uses to help people transition at the end of life and to support their grieving loved ones.
This is a rare and valuable opportunity to reflect on your feelings and beliefs about death and how we can, together, care for the dying and each other at these difficult times.
This is part of a series of events marking the Hospice Society’s 30th anniversary. These events are intended to encourage community dialogue in order to bring the conversation about death and dying into the open.
There will be discussion following the presentations and refreshments afterwards.
Tickets are $15 at the Sechelt Visitor Centre, MELOmania, Laedeli and online at Share-There.com. For more information, call the Hospice Society at 604-740-0475.
This event is made possible through the generous support of the Town of Gibsons, Sunshine Coast Regional District and Coast Reporter.
– Submitted by Donna Shugar
