The Long Table starts October 9 in Marina Vallarta

The Living Room Bookstore & Café will begin The Long Table, a monthly Death Café, at its Calle Timón location in Marina Vallarta. The opening gathering is scheduled for Friday, October 9, at 1 p.m., and attendance is free. Future gatherings will take place on the second Friday of each month, with all dates in the 2026–2027 schedule set for 1 p.m. The meetings will remain at The Living Room Bookstore & Café on Calle Timón in Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta. Everyone is welcome, including locals, expats, and visitors. At a Death Café, participants sit together with coffee or tea and something sweet while discussing death in whatever direction the conversation takes. The Long Table follows the principles of the international Death Café model. The movement began in London in 2011 to help people make more of their finite lives by speaking more freely about mortality. More than 24,000 Death Cafés have been held in over 100 countries. The Long Table will have no agenda, no guest speaker, and no promotion of a product or belief. It is not therapy or a formal grief counselling session. Laura Ghilardi Miller will host the gatherings. She decided to create the venue after noticing that Vallarta had no place offering that kind of space, and she saw a need for people to speak openly about those they had lost. Ghilardi Miller’s husband died 27 years ago. After his death, she started a grief support group at a Chicago hospital. She says, “I am not a therapist,” and “I am a good listener.” She also says, “I have found that being heard is what grieving people need most.” Ghilardi Miller has called Puerto Vallarta home for 18 years. Madeline Milne, a co-owner of The Living Room, says The Long Table is “a beautiful addition to The Living Room’s programming and events.” Milne says, “Some of the most meaningful conversations are those people rarely make room for.” She says The Living Room is honored to offer a table where such conversations are welcome. Milne said the first meeting’s timing, weeks before Día de Muertos, felt especially fitting. She said the country has long embraced remembrance as an act of love, and that people honor those who have died with marigolds, ofrendas, and stories told around the table. Milne also says bookstores and cafés have long been places to meet friends, build community, and spark conversation. Visitors can attend the first gathering at 1 p.m. on Friday, October 9, at The Living Room Bookstore & Café on Calle Timón in Marina Vallarta.