I'm not surprised that people are negative about this, particularly if suffering a bereavement.
I feel anxious about death, as many people do, but it got me thinking about how death has become sanitised in our culture, after attending a talk by Erica Buist. She began writing a book about death festivals in various countries, after being completely traumatised by the sudden death of a member of her family. She was so unprepared for the anxiety it caused.
Some recent research showed that we generally put up numerous defences to stave off thoughts of death, and generally see it as a problem for other people, but that it will not happen to us.
I wonder if we were more able, and it was easier to talk about death in everyday situations, it would help to lift our phobia and taboos around death?
The Guardian had an article on Death Cafes in 2014, "What on earth is a death cafe" if anyone interested.