Nancy was someone who lived life on her terms. It was on this trip that she told us what was going to happen when she died. She made it clear that she didn't want any unnecessary expenses spent on her final arrangements. I had thought we had more time to put a box together. I had envisioned making her a custom box, perfectly shaped for her petite but tough as nails frame. Little did I know that she only lived a few hours at hospice. We now had 24 hours to make a box and pick her body up from hospice. What were we going to do?
Well if you are like most people you would not even consider doing all the arrangements yourself. Making the box, completing all the paperwork, and transportation to the crematorium. You would call the funeral home and they would be there within the hour to transport. You would sign the check and be done with all the "messy details". As you know by now, I am not most people. Nancy was special and had given explicit direction that we were not going to follow the status quo. While I was confident that I could make a box in 24 hours if I had a workshop and didn't have anything else to do. But paperwork needed to be completed and more importantly I wanted to sit vigil with the family. All these thoughts were rushing around my head as I drove to hospice. The problem was already solved by the time I arrived. You see, I had built a box at home and it was sitting at the end of the hall. It was kind of a template I had created a few months before. Most people would not find the humour of Nancy getting the "floor model" but we thought it was exactly what Nancy would have appreciated.
The box was only put together with a handful of screws and so we had to dismantle it, glue and screw it all together. As with many of my box builds, the weather wasn't conducive to having glue set up so we moved the box to the kitchen and did the assemble there.
After a quick sanding of the box the next morning, we added some hay for bedding and off we went to pick her up from hospice.
I would love to tell the whole story but I think I will create a separate blog in order to tell it properly.
Well if you are like most people you would not even consider doing all the arrangements yourself. Making the box, completing all the paperwork, and transportation to the crematorium. You would call the funeral home and they would be there within the hour to transport. You would sign the check and be done with all the "messy details". As you know by now, I am not most people. Nancy was special and had given explicit direction that we were not going to follow the status quo. While I was confident that I could make a box in 24 hours if I had a workshop and didn't have anything else to do. But paperwork needed to be completed and more importantly I wanted to sit vigil with the family. All these thoughts were rushing around my head as I drove to hospice. The problem was already solved by the time I arrived. You see, I had built a box at home and it was sitting at the end of the hall. It was kind of a template I had created a few months before. Most people would not find the humour of Nancy getting the "floor model" but we thought it was exactly what Nancy would have appreciated.
After a quick sanding of the box the next morning, we added some hay for bedding and off we went to pick her up from hospice.
I would love to tell the whole story but I think I will create a separate blog in order to tell it properly.
