Why do we need caskets?
A hugely important question. Some people say, why bother? Well, there’s a practical side. We all know that you’ve got to transport the deceased somehow. And something. Which is why some people would say, well, why bother having anything different? Why not just have one standard for all? Like they used to in the Wild West? Um, well, really, you’ve got to personalise to the person who has died. You’ve got to make it work for them. Otherwise your grief doesn’t work properly if you’re not making the right connections. A really good example. If someone’s got a vibrant personality and you put them in something like this immediately, people make that connection and it helps their grief. If you put them in a pine box, it doesn’t make that same connection unless you can do something cool with that pine box. And we’ll talk about that a bit later with designing and drawing and so forth. So it’s customising it to the person. Sometimes it’s the design like a woodworker, you know, something like this amazing piece of rimu here. Wonderful If you loved wood. Wouldn’t make sense to have Kane if you’re a woodworker. So but also if you’re a bit of a greenie or I’d like to say I’m a bit of a hippie at heart. You know, something like this would be really cool for me. I’d love it. So it’s not just the practical transport, it’s the customising it so that it it mental health wise, it makes that connection and helps you with your grief.
So is that why people decorate them and paint them and everything?
Yeah. So. Exactly. Once upon a time, you had the traditional dark timber caskets like the one down the bottom. And, you know, everybody had that because it was tradition and it was sombre and everyone wore black. And I don’t wear black much at all. But, um, the whole, the whole concept is that nowadays you can draw on them, people can write on them, they can send a message by putting a message on it. Um, plain pine caskets are actually probably more popular now than most of these ones because you can personalise them. We did it with granddad’s funeral. We took a pine casket, put it at home in the garage, and everyone who came in was able to draw and paint on it. He was on the bed, but we actually had the casket in the garage and painted it, and it was amazing because it was everyone’s personal gift, if you like, that created that casket.
So what about eco friendly caskets?
So all our caskets are eco friendly. Believe it or not, even the white one. Back in 2007, I got to the point I really hated the idea of cremating those caskets that are made of MDF. The stuff you buy at the warehouse falls apart. So I found a pine manufacturer who made pine furniture. So all of our caskets are pine. We managed to get him down in price because he was making a bulk, so there were only about $50 more than the MDF. And they’re beautifully sustainable because they’re New Zealand pine. It’s a renewable resource and it’s not full of all those horrible resins and things we import from overseas. So yeah, it’s a great story to be able to actually offer people something that is eco friendly as well as practical, as well as not too expensive.
So what about casket linings? How do we do that and why do we do that?
Why don’t I take you to the workshop and show you? Well, we do this for a number of reasons. This is the plastic. Well, it’s not plastic these days, but a waterproof lining that goes in the bottom, a wax covered lining. This is regulation. So we have to put that in. And then of course we we do. We put in a mattress and we put a bolster around. So this is sort of a a foam lining that goes around the top of the casket, which is pretty cool. Um, and then we put what we call side sheets over the top. Uh, put that over there and obviously a pillow goes inside. Um, which is lovely, but why bother putting a mattress? And why bother putting a soft lining? A lot of people are very practical. I say it’s just a casket. Yeah, but it’s more than that. It’s a it’s a treasure. The word casket as opposed to coffin. Coffin is just the physical thing. A casket is a a vehicle or a vessel for carrying something important. Okay. Um, so this is what we’re doing. We’re creating something a bit special. Some people like to line their own, and we will help them with that. Some people like to buy their own fittings. We suggest the actual strengthened handles so we know that they’re going to work and not break. Um, but the softness around here is all psychological. It’s for mental health. So people come up and they touch and they feel and it calms them. And the same with the mattress on the bottom. There’s no need for a mattress. The deceased doesn’t know it’s it’s going to be comfortable. But we know. And because we know it just does something to our mental health as far as knowing that they’re at rest and at peace.
So we talked about decorating earlier. Are these some of the ones that we would decorate?
Here’s one here. Um, pine with a rope handle. You know, if you’re a builder or a bowtie. Fantastic. Granddad wasn’t either of those things, so we chose the one with the nice handle. We’ve also got one. I’ll just pull over here, which is the plain pine ply box. Really basic for people who just go to the crematorium pretty quickly. Maybe only 1 or 2 people sitting with them having a quiet time. But again, you can still write and draw. Put a message, put a drawing onto this. It’s ply. So very practical. Can’t put handles on this because it’s a little bit too too simple. Um, you do need to upgrade to something carryable if you’re going to carry a casket. So yeah, this is this is the casket you’d use to personalise and decorate.
So what about smaller caskets for like, ashes and stuff.
Smaller caskets we call ashes urns. And we’ll talk about that in the next video. – LINK TO URN VIDEO
