This is a great idea. I want to be cremated. I once cremated a pet lizard in my backyard. His molecules returned to the Great Beyond as they should.
By KATIE ZEZIMA Published: July 20, 2009
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did not call a funeral home to handle the arrangements.
The home funeral for Nathaniel Roe, 92, who died in Peterborough, N.H., on June 6. His family handled the arrangements.
Cheryl Senter for The New York Times
Chuck Lakin assembling a pine coffin in April on his home workbench in Waterville, Me.
Cheryl Senter for The New York Times
Mr. Lakin works with a wood plane and a practiced eye.
Mr. Lakin’s bookcase coffin, which is two seven-inch-deep boxes hinged together.
Instead, Mr. Roe’s children, like a growing number of people nationwide, decided to care for their father in death as they had in the last months of his life. They washed Mr. Roe’s body, dressed him in his favorite Harrods tweed jacket and red Brooks Brothers tie and laid him on a bed so family members could privately say their last goodbyes.
The next day, Mr. Roe was placed in a pine coffin made by his son, along with a tuft of wool from the sheep he once kept. He was buried on his farm in a grove off a walking path he traversed each day.
“It just seemed like the natural, loving way to do things,” said Jennifer Roe-Ward, Mr. Roe’s granddaughter. “It let him have his dignity.”
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Tags: New York | Family | Environment | home burial
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