Death By Design

It was April of 2017 when Garrick and the late Kinsloe Kelley Colwell, LMFT, invited over 20 Austin area healthcare professionals to meet and discuss ways in which they couldassist the Central Texas community in becoming aware of the importanceof completing their advance care directives.Over the next few months, the group met and decided to offer educational programs and resources through a non-profit organization they would call Kitchen Table Conversations.They felt the name of the organization would encourage people to have the end of life conversations in the comfort of their homes instead ofduringa medical crisis in the ICU.July 1, 2017, this web site was launched. The first workshop was offered the following month.In October, AARP of Central Texas began sponsoringThe 3 Ds of Advance Care Planning:How to Decide, Discuss, and Document Your End of Life Wishesworkshops.In 2020 AARP will sponsor four such webinars that will reachthousands of Central Texans.These workshops are facilitated by Garrick Colwell, President, and CEO of Kitchen Table Conversations.Garrick has been a Hospice Volunteer since 1987, servingas an on-callhospital and hospice chaplain. He is aRespecting Choices® Person-Centered CareFirst Steps® Advance Care Planning Certified Instructor and Facilitator.As aCertified Grief Recovery Specialist,he co-created with Hospice AustinConversationsOn Grief, a monthly online grief support program. As a volunteer, heco-facilitates drop-in and loss of spouse grief support groups.Garrick has completed over 200 hours of study with a grief expert David Kessler atgrief.com. David is the author of five bestselling books on grief. His first book,The Needs of the Dying,is a #1 best-selling hospice book praised by Mother Teresa. He co-authored with thelegendary Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD, bothOn Grief and GrievingandLife Lessons.David's most recent bookFinding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief,waspublished in November 2019.Recently, Garrick completed 240 hours of training with the author, educator, and griefcounselor Alan Wolfelt, Ph.D., CT, and holds aDeath and Grief Studiescertificate fromthe internationally recognized Center for Loss and Life Transition, a privatean organization founded by Dr. Wolfelt that is dedicated tofurthering our understanding of grief.In 2020 Kitchen Table Conversations began offering their Grief Education webinar series.Topics, dates, and times can be found on our Home Page; click on Grief Education.Garrick can be reached at 512-787-3402 orgarrick@KitchenTableConversations.orgHost a Kitchen Table Conversations Webinar, Activity, or EventIf you're interested in hosting a FREE workshop, activity, or event onAdvance Care Planningfor your company, faith community orspecial interest group,please call us today at512-787- 3402.

HOPE EDELMANhas been writing, speaking, and leading workshops and retreats in the bereavement field for more than 25 years. She was 17 when she lost her mother to breast cancer and 40 when her father died, events that inspired her to offer grief education and support to those who cannot otherwise receive it.Her first book,Motherless Daughters, was a #1New York Timesbestseller and appeared on multiple bestseller lists worldwide. Her work has been translated into 14 languages and published in 11 countries. Hope is the author of seven additional nonfiction books, includingMotherless Mothersand the memoirThe Possibility of Everything. She was the recipient of the 2020 Community Educator Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling and has won a Puschcart Prize for her creative nonfiction.In addition to writing and speaking, she is a certified Martha Beck Life Coach and also leads nonfiction workshops to help writers tell, revisit, and revise their stories of loss. Hope lives and works in Los Angeles and Iowa City.The AfterGrief OverviewDrawing on her own encounters with the ripple effects of early loss, as well as on interviews with dozens of researchers, therapists, and regular people who’ve been bereaved,New York Timesbestselling authorHope Edelmanoffers profound advice for reassessing loss and adjusting the stories we tell ourselves about its impact on our identities.With guidance for reframing a story of loss, finding equilibrium within it, and even experiencing renewed growth and purpose in its wake, she demonstrates that though grief is a lifelong process, it doesn’t have to be alifelong struggle.https://hopeedelman.com/books/the-aftergrief/We don’t ever ‘get over’ the death of a loved one.But we do eventually ‘get on‘ with living in a world without this essential person by our side.It takes time to learn how to live in this new world.It takes time.”—HOPE EDELMAN

Untold: Creating Space for Loss After StillbirthTuesday, December 1, 5 p.m. Pacific TimeJoin us fora live performance of Elizabeth Coplan's play Untold, and join Dr. Jillian Tullis, University of San Diego, to discuss communication challenges and grief that arise after a stillbirth.Veteran Grief Dialogues actors (Left to Right) Gretchen Douma, Shane Regan, and Joanne Burger perform in this live performance.Following the performance, Dr. Jillian Tullis will discuss the communication challenges from witnessing a baby’s death. Is it truly "the smallest yet most powerful thing we can do."Jillian A. Tullis, Ph.D.(Far right) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of San Diego. Her teaching and research interests focus on health communication, specificallycommunication about dying and death in healthcare settings. Tullis’ scholarship used qualitative methods to study such topics as hospice team communication, tumor boards, spirituality, dying, death, quality of life, and a “good death.”Warning: The play contains scenes of childbirth and may trigger feelings of depression and grief especially among those who have suffered miscarriage, stillbirth, failed IVF, and/or unsuccessful adoption.https://letsreimagine.org/58851/untold-creating-space-for-loss-after-stillbirth

Eileen Robertson Hamra is the woman you meet—at the gym, in the coffee shop, or dropping off the kids at school—with a story that draws you in the minute she begins to tell it. At age forty-one, after losing her husband in a plane crash, she became a single mother to three children aged eight, seven and four. Overnight, the man she thought she would spend eternity with, the literal pilot of her family’s wonderful life, was gone. When everything seemed broken, the future she dreamed about now impossible, Eileen had to make choices she never imagined making.What she did choose to do was peel herself out of bed those first few weeks of mourning, and with constant love and support from family and friends, she found a well of inner strength and she dipped down into it. Working through her own grief and the grief of her children, Eileen experienced a gradual spiritual awakening. The result? On the other side of tragedy, she found new love, gave birth to a miracle child, and rediscovered her calling: to build stronger, loving and ever evolving families.Eileen believes we don’t always get to choose what happens to us, but we do get to choose the story we tell when asked, “What happened?”With the intention of helping others tap into their inner resilience and reimagine adversity as an opportunity for growth, Eileen shares her story of loss and rebuilding in her memoir, Time to Fly. Because of her story—thanks to her story—Eileen has dedicated her life’s work to carrying on the legacy of the family she grew up with, the family she created with Brian and the family she continues to grow with Mike.Eileen holds transformational retreats in Chicago, Los Cabos and elsewhere. As a public speaker, certified yogi, holistic nutritionist, and life coach with an MBA, Eileen brings a practical, holistic and humanistic approach to everything she does. From creative advising to impact investing, to building strength emotionally or physically, Eileen holds space to stay focused on what she believes matters most—family, friends, and community.https://www.eileenrobertsonhamra.com

The Connecticut Association for Healthcare at Home is the largest member group of home health & hospice leaders championing home-based solutions as vital to better health in CT. Through networking, education and advocacy leadership, the Associations is helping those in the CT healthcare continuum get connected, be informed and create change.https://www.cthealthcareathome.orgTracy WodatchPresident & CEOCourtney VerissimoMembership & Events ManagerDoreen NapoliEducation & Events PlannerAlison ClarkOperations Manager

Olga is a death educator, certified in Thanatology, the study of death, dying, loss and bereavement. She is the founder and director of DyingMatters.ca and provides educational presentations and workshops on death, dying, loss and bereavement. She is one of the founding faculty members of the BEyond Yonder Virtual School for Death Midwifery in Canada. Olga has over 20 years of experience in health care, serving as a regional Hospice Palliative Care Planner, community palliative care nurse and healthcare educator. Her educational history includes a bachelor degree in Anthropology and Psychology, a Master’s degree in Religion and Culture, and an interdisciplinary certificate in palliative care. As a death educator Olga continues to gain knowledge in the field of spiritual care, death, dying and living. Olga is thrilled to be part of the We Can Die Better movement in Canada, contributing her experience, knowledge and passion.What makes Olga a great mentor is her ability to recognize that we all posses our own inner wisdom when it comes to death, dying, loss and bereavement, and that being a mentor is to assist in the expansion of that wisdom by offering new information, knowledge and insight. “I have learned much from my own mentors, teachers and guides, and strive to provide a non-judgemental approach to guide anyone in their own personal learning.”