This sounds horribly morbid, but I’m about to start building my grandpa’s coffin. He’s been really sick for the last six months and my family has realised that it’s time for him to go. Despite how pragmatic I’m being about all of this, I can’t stress enough how truly devastated we all are. My grandpa is one of my favourite people in the entire world, and I wish this didn’t have to happen.
The reason I’m building his coffin is that I used to really be into woodworking as a kid and my grandpa was my biggest supporter. He used to take me to woodworking classes on the weekends, bought all my supplies and even took me to my first ever hardware store. Cheltenham, where he’s lived for the last 70 years has a hardware store that he loved taking me to. It’s from that store that I’ve purchased the supplies to build his coffin.
It’ll mean a lot to the both of us for him to rest peacefully forever in something that I made for him. It means the world to me to know that he’ll always have something that was a part of me with him, both for his comfort and my own. The process of building the coffin will also be very reflective and therapeutic for me as I come to terms with losing him forever.
I cried when I went to the hardware store to buy the building supplies. Cheltenham just reminds me so much of him, that it was really hard for me to be okay with what was going on. I’m losing my best friend and my role model, so the least I can do is give him a part of me forever.
It’s going to be truly horrible day when he leaves this Earth, but I promise the build the highest quality, most comfortable coffin in the world.