Turning Now to the Subject of Coffins, We Find...

...this tidbit from the Sun Newspaper in London, courtesy of Linda.

Dr Who fan's Tardis coffin




Inter me mate! ... Tim's funeral

Funny, but I didn't see any time traveling coffins for sale the last time I was in the market. I didn't see an airplane-shaped coffin, either, until tonight.

The airplane coffin is one of many fanciful custom coffins made by the Ga people of Ghana. They also make them in the shapes of chickens, fish, boats, and even Bibles. Neat, huh?

I wonder whether Costco knows about these. Probably not, but they do have more conventional coffins available for sale, at least at their Chicago store.

My mom's casket from Adair Funeral Home was none of the above. We didn't go for fancy or fantastic, nor for the cheapest allowed by law. I didn't even go for a metal one, although there were nice ones at the funeral home for about the same price as wood. But wood seemed like the way to go. One reason for this was tradition, but also it seems silly to say "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," and then try to keep the body from returning to the earth with a high-tech, watertight metal casket with some kind of special gas release valve. So I chose the kind pictured here--I think.

Last year at Halloween, I watched a special on coffins and funerals and the history of cemeteries, along with a look at the really high-end coffins, the ones that cost about as much as a car. It was interesting, but I think it was really too dark a subject for me to watch without getting all depressed, 10 1/2 months after my mom's death. I hope you find this journal entry a bit more light-hearted than that.

Karen

Costco's Coffin Corner (NPR audio)
African Voices: Fantasy Coffins