Experiences of a Coffineer - Part 6

Talking with the dead


Imagine the scene: a cold dark draughty room with only a few flickering candles for light. A group of strange people gathered uncomfortably around the table. The sound of eerie music playing in the background.

Now, before we all get carried away, I'm not really referring to Ouija board seance mumbo jumbo here.

As I think I may have mentioned before, one of the most amazing and emotional parts of this job is speaking with your prospective customers as they make plans for their own deaths or for the funerals of their loved ones.

Since we first opened Wealden Coffins with the launch of the Curve Coffin last spring I've had many such conversations and I can tell you there is nothing quite so humbling as a deep and meaningful conversation with someone who is planning their own death.

Whilst most funerals are arranged in haste by family members with the local funeral directors, often with no real knowledge of what the deceased really wanted for their final celebration, there is definitely a growing number of people who want to research the options before they die and make some if not all of the final arrangement for their own funerals. 

And from the conversations I've had it seems that the last thing most of these people want is an impersonal, bog standard funeral with an often mundane and  uninspiring traditional coffin.

I recently had a chat with a lovely lady who had discovered us through the the coffin listings on the Good Funeral Guide where our good friend Charles Cowling kindly promotes us.

We talked about the weather, the snow and the rain (ok so it wasn't that recent) how the farmers were struggling and of course our coffins. She mentioned how lovely it was to see a coffin that looked so unusually unlike a coffin and how beautiful they looked!

Michelle had seen our beautiful Curve Coffin hand painted by Holly with our tree of life design but wanted to know if it was available with apples instead of hearts for the fruits. I explained that all of our coffins are hand made to order and then painted to order so anything was possible! 

We spoke about colours and finishes, apples (my favourites are Braeburn, Michelle's were Galas) and how many handles were on the coffins, that they are made from natural hemp rope and totally structural. 

At the time I wasn't sure if it was a request for herself or for another family member. I followed up with an email  confirming our conversation and left it at that.

It wasn't until several weeks later that I was reminded of the call when I was approached by the funeral directors acting for the family. Michelle had passed away and had left detailed instructions about the actual coffin she wanted for her own funeral, specifying the design, the colour and the finish in her final wishes. 

It's conversations like these that make me realise that what we are doing is something special.

We've had several people tell us that our coffins are beautiful and it's great to know that we aren't just making coffins, we make things of beauty.