WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – When straw carriers brought Phil McLean’s coffin to the chapel, bosses were produced before a wave of laughter spread among the hundreds of grieving people.
The coffin was a giant cream donut.
“It overshadowed the sadness and hard times of the last few weeks,” said his widow, Debra. “The final memory in everyone’s mind was that donut and Phil’s sense of humor.”
The donut was the latest creation from Phil Ross Hall’s cousin, who runs a business in Auckland, New Zealand called Dying Art, who personally builds colored coffins.
Other Hall creations include a sailboat, a fire truck, a chocolate bar, and Lego blocks. There are shiny coffins covered in fake jewelry, a coffin inspired by the movie “The Matrix” and many coffins depicting people’s favorite beaches and vacation spots.
“There are people who are happy with a brown mahogany box and that’s fantastic,” Hall said. “But if they want to call it quits, I’m here to do it for them.”
The idea first came to Hall about 15 years ago when he was writing a will and contemplating his own death.
“How do I want to go out?” he thought, deciding he wouldn’t be like everyone else. “So I put my will that I want a red box with flames.”
Six months later, Hall, whose other business is a signage and graphics company, decided to get serious. He approached a few funeral directors who looked at him with interest and skepticism. But over time, the idea was consolidated.
Hall begins with specially crafted blank coffins and uses fiberboard and plywood to add detail. A digital latex printer is used for the designs. Some controls are particularly complex, such as the sailboat, which included keel and rudder, cabin, sails, even metal railings and pulleys.
Depending on the design, the coffins sell for between 3,000 and 7,500 New Zealand dollars ($ 2,100 and $ 5,400).
Hall said the tone of the funerals has changed markedly in recent years.
“People now think it’s a celebration of life rather than a mourning for death,” he said. And they have been willing to launch stifling conventions in favor of achieving something unique.
But a donut?
Debra McLean said she and her late husband, who was 68 when she died in February, used to tour the country in her motorhome and Phil loved to compare cream donuts to every village, considering himself a connoisseur.
He considered it a good donut that was crispy on the outside, airy in the middle and definitely made with fresh cream.
After Phil was diagnosed with bowel cancer, he had time to think about his funeral, and along with his wife and cousin, he came up with the idea for the donut coffin. Debra said they even received 150 donuts delivered at the funeral in Tauranga from Phil’s favorite bakery in Whitianga, more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) away.
Hall said his coffins are biodegradable and are usually buried or cremated along with the deceased. He said the only thing he has recovered is his cousin, because he used polystyrene and foam for modeling, which is not environmentally friendly.
Phil was changed to a normal coffin for incineration and Hall said he will keep the coffin from the donut forever. For now, he remains in the back of his 1991 white Cadillac car.
As for your own funeral? Hall said he has changed his mind about those red flames. He has emailed his children saying he wants to be buried in a clear coffin that carries only a leopard pattern G-string.
“The kids say they won’t go,” he says laughing.