The topic of death isn't something most people like to talk about.
But for the last couple of months a pop up cafe has been set up to do exactly that - spark conversations about death.
The conversations happens once a month at different cafes in the Hastings, on the NSW Mid North Coast.
Hastings death cafe coordinator Ruth Duckworth acknowledges that people really "shy away from the fact they are going to die".
"We want people to freely talk about death," she said.
The cafe doesn't have a political agenda.
"It is just a safe place where people can talk about death and dying matters," Mrs Duckworth said.
"It is a way of getting death into the conversation."
Mrs Duckworth's interest in death started from an experience working as a physio with children who had cystic fibrosis.
"In those days the children could die in their late teens," she said.
It was that experience, as well as being a minister's wife, which formed her view that people needed to be willing to have conversations around death.
Another participant of the death cafe is Teresa Muusers.
Mrs Muusers works as an end of life doula.
"I coach people through end of life decisions," she said.
"Death is a natural process but we are a death denying culture."
The idea of a death cafe originated from the Swiss sociologist and anthropologist Bernard Crettax who organised the first event of its kind in 2004.
The death cafe concept is now being run in countries around the world.
The next Hastings death cafe is on Friday, March 27 at Cafe Chance in North Haven at 10.30am.
For more information on the next event or to learn more about the group go to their Facebook page Hastings Death Cafe.
