Thursday, October 1, 2026
Local nonprofit The Elderhood Senior Alliance will hold its first Death Care and Life Transitions Expo and is inviting the community to the regular Death Cafes and Candles in the Dark Zoom gatherings.
The expo, a first of its kind for the organization, gathers professionals in death care, grief care, assisted living and elder counseling and guidance services.
The nonprofit aims to support affordable and sustainable housing for seniors, and to create a network of mutual support for seniors to assist each other.
The Death Care and Life Transitions Expo event is on March 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Sound Manor Event Center 455 North St. SE, Tumwater.
Attendees will learn about the disposition of mortal remains options, such as inhumation, cremation, terramation, aquamation, green burial and more.
Presentations include the topic of terramation or human composting, where the Olympia Threshold Singers will perform some songs at the bedsides of people who are transitioning to ease them on their way.
“Join professionals in death care, grief care, assisted living and elder counseling and guidance services in a candid and open discussion about life's most challenging issues!,” a flyer about the event states.
Glenn Harper, a representative from The Elderhood Senior Alliance, will host panel discussions on the different forms of assisted living from in-home care, elder living transitions counselors, grief support, and legacy and memorials.
“Panels of three to six professionals will be asked to speak for (five) minutes or less on what they do and give an overview of how their industries/professions support people and describe what a likely client of theirs would look like,” Harper wrote in an email.
A question and answer portion with the audience will follow the introductory remarks.
Admission is free! Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Ten available sponsor tables are priced at $50 each. There is a space for 10 to 12 more tables for interested individuals who will bring their tables and take them upon leaving.
The organizers will offer light refreshments, such as tea, coffee, water, pastries and fruit. Sponsorships for the refreshments are also welcome.
A Death Cafe is where people gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death.
The cafe’s objective is "to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their (finite) lives."
A Death Cafe is a group-directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes.
Although these topics are fair game, it is a discussion group rather than grief counseling or funeral planning
Other topics might include your thoughts, feelings and experiences relating to life after death, past lives, near-death experiences, reincarnation, ghostly apparitions, loss, memorial rites/customs, methods of dealing with mortal remains and others.
Death Cafes are always offered:
The Elderhood Senior Alliance hosts two-hour Zoom gatherings every Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7–9 p.m.
The Candles in the Dark Zoom gathering, a variation of the nonprofit’s Elderhood Roundtable, is a meeting designed to create a space for seniors to share challenges and coping strategies while providing them with socialization opportunities, especially for people with limited mobility or transportation options.
The topics to be discussed include caregiving, accessing services, grief, affordable housing, veterans’ issues, raising grandkids, gardening, health, nutrition, recreation and pets.
Various breakout rooms will be made for people of similar interests and passions. The free meeting can be accessed here (click the picture for zoom link).
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