It’s an important task, but there’s nothing stopping New Zealanders from having fun as they work on DIY caskets in the country’s “coffin clubs.”
Older club members gather for tea, conversation, and to physically finish unique coffins that will be used for their final resting place.
Kevin Heyward wants a coffin that looks like a vintage Austin Healey car, complete with the registration plate DEAD1A.
“My daughter came up with the idea,” the 79-year-old car enthusiast said with a smile, brushing sawdust off his overalls.
It’s fully equipped with a mock steering wheel, windscreen, rubber wheels with metal hub caps, wooden mudguards, a bonnet, painted-on side doors, and wing mirrors.
“The most challenging part was getting the mudguards lined up because of their curve,” Heyward told AFP at the workshop of the Hawke’s Bay Coffin Club in Hastings.
The heavy casket, which can be carried with six wooden handles, even has functioning headlights. The batteries, of course, are currently dead.
“It weighs quite a bit and I’m a big man,” he said.
“I have told my six grandsons they had better start weight-training, because they will be carrying it one day,” Heyward laughed.
“There is a bit of humor in this car.”
The club is one of four that have emerged in New Zealand, with the first opening in 2010 in Rotorua on the country’s North Island.
Some clubs have as many as 800 members, although one acknowledged “not all of them are above ground”.
At the Hastings club, Jim Thorne, a lively 75-year-old motorcycle fan, used his skills as a cabinet maker to construct a casket painted with a motorbike track, which is stored in his garage along with a collection of motorbikes.
Thorne said most friends “are a little shocked and ask ‘why are you doing that?'” when they learn about his coffin-making hobby.
“Aside from the fact that I like the look of mine, it’s my contribution to my final days.”
– ‘Dying to get a coffin?’ –
“There is a certain mindset in some people that this is almost a taboo subject that they find very, very difficult to talk about,” Thorne said.
“They tend to overcome it. At the end of the day, it’s a reality of life, unfortunately.”
He breaks the ice with newcomers by asking: “Are you eager to get a coffin?”
But the club’s atmosphere is far from gloomy.
Conversation flows during the morning tea break as members chat over scones and hot drinks.
“We’re a bit unique, but we are happy. There are always lots of jokes,” said club secretary Helen Bromley.
Most members are seniors. The club provides a space to discuss death and dying during weekly meetups.
“I think everybody here has acknowledged that they are going to die, whether they’re decorating their coffin or assisting others with theirs,” Bromley said.
“We’re a club that aims to empower people to plan their coffin, to plan for illness.”
She mentioned that some members want to spare relatives the burden of covering increasing funeral expenses. The club can also create and decorate coffins for grieving families.
The national association of funeral directors in New Zealand says that the average cost of a funeral is about NZ$10,000 (US$6,200).
The cost of coffins can vary from NZ$1,200 to NZ$4,000.
– ‘Remember Me’ –
For a NZ$30 membership fee, new members of the Hastings club receive a pressed-wood coffin in one of three designs, which can be decorated.
The coffins are available in four different sizes, with each one costing around NZ$700, plus extra for paint and a cloth lining.
During a break for tea, Bromley announced that a club member who had cancer was in intensive care after a fall, and her brother had requested the club to prioritize finishing her coffin.
The club also makes ash boxes, which they sell to the local crematorium, and small coffins for infants, which they give away.
Bromley mentioned, “The midwives and nurses at Hastings hospital have asked us to continue making the little coffins for them, without stopping.”
“We donate to whoever. If there’s a miscarriage at home and they want a coffin, we donate.”
Members also participate in creating blankets, teddy bears, pillows and hearts to place in the infants’ coffins.
Christina Ellison, a committee member aged 75, lost her infant daughter in 1968 and finds comfort in knowing that the club helps other families coping with the loss of a child.
“The little baby coffins are so beautiful and made with a lot of care. The knitting that the ladies do is incredible,” she stated.
Ellison, who is moving soon, plans to take her coffin, which has been painted in a blue-grey color called “Remember Me”.
by Agence France-Presse
