WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – When pallet truckers brought Phil McLean’s coffin into the chapel, there was a snack before a wave of laughter swept through the hundreds of mourners.
The coffin was a giant cream donut.
“It has overshadowed the sadness and the difficult times over the past few weeks,” said his widow, Debra. “The final memory in everyone’s mind was of the donut and Phil’s sense of humor.”
The donut was the latest creation from Phil’s cousin Ross Hall, who runs a business in Auckland, New Zealand called Dying Art, which builds custom-made colorful coffins.
Other creations by Hall include a sailboat, a fire truck, a chocolate bar and Lego blocks. There were glittering coffins covered with fake jewels, 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 it’s great,” Hall said. “But if they want to call it quits, I’m here to do it for them.”
The idea came to Hall about 15 years ago when he was writing a will and considering his own death.
“How do I want to go out?” he thinks to himself and decides that it will not be like everyone else. “So I put in my will that I want a red box with flames on it.”
Six months later, Hall, whose other business is a drawing and graphics company, decided to get serious. He approached some funeral directors who looked at him with interest and skepticism. But over time, the idea took off.
Hall starts with specially made empty chests and uses fiberboard and plywood to add details. A latex digital printer is used for the designs. Some orders are particularly complicated, such as the sailboat, which includes a keel and rudder, cabin, sails, even metal rails and pulleys.
Depending on the design, the chests sell for between 3,000 and 7,500 New Zealand dollars ($ 2,100 and $ 5,400).
Hall said the tone of funerals has changed significantly in recent years.
“People now think it’s a celebration of life rather than a mourning of death,” he said. And they were willing to throw out stuffy gatherings in order to get something unique.
But a donut?
Debra McLean said she and her late husband, who was 68 when he died in February, regularly toured the country in their garage.
He considers a good donut that was crunchy 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 he and his wife and cousin came up with the idea for the donut coffin. Debra said they even had 150 donuts delivered at the funeral in Tauranga at Phil’s favorite bakery in Whitianga, more than 160 kilometers away.
Hall said his coffins are biodegradable and are usually buried or cremated with the deceased. The only one he ever got is his cousin, he said, because he used polystyrene and mold foam, which is not environmentally friendly.
Phil was switched to a regular coffin for his cremation and Hall said he would keep the donut coffin forever. For now, it’s in the back of his 1991 Cadillac white hearse.
As for his own funeral? Hall said he changed his mind about the red flames. He emailed his children, saying he wanted to be buried in a clear coffin carrying nothing but a leopard print.
“The kids say they’re not going,” he says laughing.