It’s a weeknight at the B-Side Lounge in Cleveland Heights for “Drinks Over Death," a monthly gathering where people talk about — well, death.

J. Nungesser / Ideastream Public Media

About 20 people huddle up in chairs and tables facing the stage. Some play death-related board games, others talk to friends over drinks, surrounded by death-related dolls including a bobblehead of Edgar Allen Poe.

It's all to lighten the mood of participants and normalize a topic many see as taboo. Some attendees are EMTs or hospice workers, but most are just regular people wanting to understand their mortality better.

Bridget Cullen, of South Euclid, has terminal metastatic stage four breast cancer, and came to the event to help deal with her own mortality.

"Being able to talk about death without bei

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