http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-keeps-custom-made-coffin-6155734
Woman keeps custom-made COFFIN in her front garden after planning her own funeral to the letter
Mandy Maguire, 62, has left details of her funeral wishes down to the music she wants played, including One Fine day from Madame Butterfly for the Cremation and John Lennon's Imagine at the wake
Most people who fancy a little furniture for the front garden choose gnomes or a water feature.
Mandy Maguire opted for a coffin.
The Wavertree teacher helped an artist friend design her Sphinx-shaped end-of-life pod and was so pleased with it, she decided to put it on display.
“It’s enormous,” she says. “It’s 6ft long and it’s a joy to behold.
“It is a work of art. It’s beautiful.”
Mandy, 62, has always been a pragmatic person, the Liverpool Echo reports.
But she took her practicality to a whole new level when she revealed to artist pal, Gina Czarnecki, that she had planned her own funeral.
Says Mandy: “We were chatting one evening and when I said I’d planned my own funeral Gina thought it was a bit macabre and miserable.
“But it isn’t really. I have no children, my parents are dead, and my closest relative is my niece.
“Funerals are stressful at the best of times and I didn’t want anyone else to have to sort out mine.”
Mandy showed Gina her plan which included the music she wants playing - One Fine day from Madame Butterfly for the Cremation and John Lennon’s Imagine at the wake - and instructions for a cardboard coffin for environmental reasons as well as matters of cost.
“If I’m going to spend £5-6,000 on something it’s not going to be a coffin,” says Mandy. “Apart from anything else it’s a waste of wood and it just gets burned.
“So I have set aside £5,000 to go to 60 Hope Street so my friends and family can have a few drinks to celebrate my life in style. The Irish do wakes properly...
“I didn’t want to waste it on a coffin.”
Realising that it wasn’t miserable Gina ran with the idea of planning ahead, but felt her friend deserved something a little more ornate and personal than a plain cardboard box (an idea which has also sparked a business project for Gina... see below).
“So she said she would design something to go on top," continues Mandy.
“I like cats, I’m interested in archaeology and Egyptology, and so we came up with this Sphinx like figure after which Gina went away and made it in papier mache.
“It’s utterly mad - but brilliant.
“And it’s quite touching. It’s a real reflection of me and my personality and so when people see it when I’m gone, they will smile and say ‘mad old bat’.”
Mandy has had to take the coffin out of the garden temporarily while it undergoes a little repair work.
“It was sitting directly on grass and so, because you can’t guarantee the weather in this country, it was exposed to the elements and has degenerated around the bottom.”
Mandy doesn’t plan on going any time soon: “But I’m not religious and I see death and our mortality as part of the life process. If there is one thing guaranteed it’s that it will happen to all of us at some point, and thinking about it isn’t morbid, it’s just realistic.”
So having made her wishes known and, thanks to Gina, Mandy’s end-of-life pod will be ready and waiting for her to use, in a fine and fitting farewell designed by the woman herself.
“I’m just sorry I won’t be there,” she smiles. “It sounds like fun.”
No comments:
Post a Comment