[New] Explore Mortality With A Death Doula & Educator

We all eventually have a date with death. While death is a complex and often emotional topic, discussion, reflection, and community connections can help people manage anxieties and face the factsof human mortality.Join death doula and educator Siobhan Skehan for Getting Comfortable With Death, an open discussion not connected to specific religious beliefs. The conversation is part of a broader collective called the Date With Death Club.

Getting Comfortable With Death will happen on Feb. 8 from 5:30 -7:45 p.m. at the Central Branch.

Registration is required and can be completed at https://calendar.kfpl.ca/ event/7705835 or over the phone at 613549-8888.

Skehan, a former high school teacher, now offers death doula support and provides community-based death and dying education. She is passionate about spreading the message that “doing death differently” is possible.

“By coming to this event, people will be able to explore mortality in community, make connections and learn what death doulas do, “ said Jake Miller, Librarian, Adult Programming. “With resources provided for everyone who attends, we hope they come away with a better understanding of what death means to them and how they want to approach mortality.” ■

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Saturday January 28

SHarBot laKE - all YoU CaN Eat BrEaKFaSt 8-11am. Soldiers Memorial Hall (OSO Hall). Cost - $10 Presented by the Sharbot Lake and District Lions Club In support of Special Olympics

VEroNa - WiNtEr WarM-UP BrEaKFaSt 8:30-11am. Trinity United Church. Admission by donation. Take-out orders 343-422-4110 by 9am Saturday pick-up or email vca@xplornet. ca Friday by 11am.

VEroNa - StYlE rEViVal 10am-1pm. Verona Free Methodist Church. Free gently used clothing and footwear for all ages. PlEVNa - daY oF BUlGaria aNd roMaNia 1-2pm. Clar-Mill Hall. Join us to celebrate Canadian Diversity Free Bulgarian and Romanian Food and Wine

Thursday February 2

VEroNa - 55+ diNErS’ lUNCH 12pm. Verona Free Methodist Church. Join SFCS for beef stew with dessert and drinks. $10 / meal. Register 613-376-6477 x 303 or joanne. silver@sfcs.ca

Regular Happenings

BiNGo — NORTHBROOK 7pm Thursdays. Northbrook Lions Hall. Cards available at 6pm. Bingo starts at 7pm ◾ SHARBOT LAKE 5:30pm Fridays. Soldiers Memorial Hall (OSO Hall). Presented by Parham IOOF. First game at 6:45

BoliNGBroKE - MaHJoNG 1-4pm Thursdays. ABC Hall. All welcome, Chinese or American version. $5 per person. No partner or experience needed !

EUCHrE — BOLINGBROKE 1pm Tuesdays. ABC Hall. $5 Lots of fun! ◾ NORTHBROOK 6:30pm Tuesdays. Northbrook Lions Hall. Weekly, opens at 6:30, start playing at 7pm. ◾ SYDENHAM 1-3pm Thursdays. Grace Hall. Register with Denzel 613-376-6477 ext 310 PErtH road - FoUr HaNdEd EUCHrE 1pm Thursdays. Harris Park. $5, includes light refreshments trough all four seasons. have walked trough so far. No matter where, hiking in Newfoundland, the Maritimes, Quebec or now in Ontario, people have been welcoming and helpful all along. I can't say there is any difference of support in my journey in any of these provinces.”

PErtH road - PErtH road VillaGE CraFtErS 9:30-11:30am Wednesdays. Harris Park. You don’t have to be crafty to join! Drop-in or call Peggy for info 613-353-2635.

PlEVNa - SoCial aNd CraFt tiME 10am Thursdays. Clar-Mill Hall. Bring your lunch, coffee and tea available. Info Carlie Rainville at 613-479-8023 or drop in. Hope to see you there!

SHarBot laKE - aa MEEtiNG 8pm Mondays. Soldiers Memorial Hall (OSO Hall).

SYdENHaM - CroKiNolE - Not JUSt For KidS! 2pm Thursdays. Sydenham Legion.

VEroNa - tHE tWiStEd KNittErS GroUP 10am-12pm Wednesdays. Trinity United Church. All knitters and crocheters welcome.

What she has also seen, because she has now been walking for a year, is the way the seasons change and the impact on the landscape.

“It is absolutely beautiful to witness the slow but then also sudden changes in nature as I am walking the trail

I remember impatiently watching the arrival of Spring and then found myself mesmerized when I hiked trough the lush, vividly green forest in Gatineau park in Quebec.” And as far as the dangers on the trail are concerned, she had learned something that rural people all learn, it is not the bears and coyotes that you really need to worry about, it is the insects.

“The mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies, they are way more of an annoyance than anything else."

As she heads towards Toronto, which will put her about 1/3 of the way on her 15,000 kilometre journey, Melanie is happy about what she has seen and experience in year one of what she now hopes will be a journey that ends before the winter of 2019/2020, but she feels some trepidation over the prospect of crossing the Prairies next winter.

“As I planned for this journey I was optimistic to cross the Prairies late summer and fall. Now that I am one year into my journey I realized I will be reaching them when winter begins. With the prairies known as being terribly cold and windy I do have serious concerns. I will do my best and accordingly prepare for it and try to walk trough it as I walked through the previous winter. However if the cold gets too dangerous I may have to stop for a while.”

But that is a long way off. As Melanie left Sharbot Lake two weeks ago, she had another set of stories and some new friends to remember, as well as a copy of Back of Sunset and a Central Frontenac pin in her pack, courtesy of Mayor Fran Smith.

As of Tuesday of this week, Melanie has hit the Big Smoke. Next stop, Wawa. ■