Every third Saturday in 2025, join Heartwood Death Doula and Bereavement Care founder Holly Lux-Sullivan for an online Date with Death Club.

Sessions are open to anyone who wants to discuss dying, death, and grief. Some sessions will involve existential, spiritual, and emotional exploration; others will focus on education about end-of-life care, medical aid in dying, and body disposition options.

Date with Death Club, created by Karen G. Johnston, MSW, M.Div., offers participants opportunities to explore mortality in community. DwDC is spiritual but not religious: People of all beliefs and faiths are welcome.

You’re welcome to join as many sessions as you like: They each stand alone, but there is power in community, and regular participation is encouraged.

Jan. 18, 2025: Getting Comfortable with Death Talk

Death has become hidden, making it harder for us to come to terms with the reality of it. It hasn’t always been this way. The modern death-positive movement creates ways for those who want the chance to talk openly about mortality. We’ll explore how the Date with Death Club provides a chance to grow our comfort and knowledge about this topic.

Feb. 15: Aging: Better Than the Alternative

In this life, there’s no escaping aging or declining health. It is part of the mortal dance. In our youth-oriented society, one must be intentional to feel good about aging or about health challenges. We’ll use this session to explore what it means to come face to face with the two realities of aging and getting sick, lessening fear by facing it.

March 15: Resistance & Acceptance: The Mortal Dance

Our attitudes toward our own mortality are a dance between resistance (do not go gentle into that good night) and acceptance (no one gets out of here alive). This session will use music and reflection to explore death anxiety and the new science around the use of psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) to help ease the fear of death in those with terminal diagnoses.

April 19: Good Life & Good Death

What do people mean when they say “a good death”? And how is that connected to having “a good life”? Is it the same for everyone? Are there barriers to a good life? What do these terms mean for you?

May 17: Dying, Death, & Poetry

Reflecting upon dying and death can sound morbid, but really it can connect us with what is truly meaningful in our lives, as well as with beauty in the world and gratitude in our hearts. This session will use easy-to-understand poetry to help us find our own way of understanding our mortality.

June 21: Afterlife / Afterlives

What happens after we die is a mystery. There’s lots of speculation and theory but no concrete evidence. In this non-dogmatic session, we’ll explore concepts of an afterlife (or not) through an interfaith panel representing different traditions and outlooks, then engage in personal reflection on what our beliefs are, where we got them, and how they have held up over our lifetimes.

July 19: Grief: Loving & Losing, Learning & Living

With love comes loss. With living comes dying. This session explores how grief and disenfranchised grief work and what it means in our own lives. While our focus is grief, and there may be grieving people in the room, this is not a grief support group.

Aug. 16: Hospice, Palliative Care, & End-of-Life Documents, Oh My!

More and more people are using hospice at the end of life and doing so sooner, which can be helpful to them and their loved ones. Yet, most people who want to die at home end up dying in a facility. In this session, we’ll hear from an expert on hospice and explore end-of-life documents like advance directives.

Sept. 20: Medical Aid in Dying / Death with Dignity

What does death with dignity mean? We’ll explore the in’s and out’s of Medical Aid in Dying, including its legal status in the United States and what it means. We’ll also review other legal, ethical ways to hasten death, being sure to explore concerns about ableism that are a part of this landscape.

Oct. 18: Owning Your Dying

Death as a general concept is one thing; our own death is a whole other thing. In this session, we’ll talk about possible ways to face our own death with intention, exploring the process of holding deathbed vigils, as well as home funerals. We’ll talk about the role of end-of-life support people and other community supports for reclaiming this aspect of our lives.

Nov. 15: Writing Your Own Obituary

Just like planning your own memorial service, you can spend time now putting together your obituary. We’ll explore both traditional obituaries (the kind you are likely to find in the local newspaper) and more story-based obituaries that can help us connect with our own deeper purpose in whatever time we have left on this earth. We’ll use a specially developed worksheet to guide us that you can take home.

Dec. 20: What to Do with a Dead Body?

After a death, the body must be taken care of — “disposed.” Common means are burial and traditional cremation. Yet there are evolving technologies and new choices to be made. Perhaps you want a green burial? Or you want your body to become compost? Or may you want to donate your body to science? We’ll explore what’s out there and what choices you may want to make now to get what you want then.