We all joke about our impending doom. Or we push it out of our minds like a terrible thought. The thing is- we’re all not for long on this Earth, and really should be thinking about our end of life plans. If only for our families that will be dealing with enough grief at the time.
There is a company in New Zealand created by Ross Hall called Dying Art that makes caskets and urns specially designed for the person they carry. So if you wanted something with “Star Trek” on it because that was something you were really into, they could make that for you.
They came about in the news recently for having a funny casket hold a family member. The story goes that the owner’s brother Phil had picked out an ice cream doughnut to house his remains. Everyone in the chapel gasped and then erupted in laughter. It left the impression of his sense of humor being forefront in the attendees minds. The overall mood changed from mourning to a celebration of life, which is exactly what the deceased would have wanted.
“It overshadowed the sadness and the hard times in the last few weeks. The final memory in everyone’s mind was of that donut, and Phil’s sense of humor,” Debra LcLean told the AP about her husband’s casket.
How they started
Hall started out thinking, “One of the things that came into my mind is I didn’t want to go out in a brown box. So, I thought to myself I’m going to write in my will that I want a red casket with flames on it.” Dying Art was established in 2003, to provide a personalized casket service as a means for family and friends to celebrate the life of their loved one. He had already owned a signage company so he had the means to print custom designs. He then decided that he would make an official business out of it.
Dying Art has a blog where they feature some of their more specialized designs. They have things like firetrucks with working lights for firemen to ones that look like LEGOs for children. The more common ones are in their website catalog which you can view here.
