My wife's family has a rich family history that dates way back to descendants of Stephen F. Austin. Many of her family is buried at a small cemetery in Jones Ceeek, in Brazoria county. This is the same cemetery that Stepehen F. Austin was originally buried in before he was moved to Austin in 1910.
We recently received the news of the untimely passing of her uncle in a car accident. He was only in his late 50s and was the family historian in a lot of ways. Kind of hard to get to know but a really neat guy once he decided he liked you. He will leave a large void.
When her family met me and found out that I am a carpenter they asked me at dinner one evening if I had ever built a casket....they were serious. It turns out that many of their family members are buried in home built caskets. This is the 2nd time I have been privileged to build them one. Per his wishes, his son and I bought cedar from McCoy's amd built him a simple casket. No trim, no moulding, don't spend a dime more than you have to. So we went to Mcoy's and I helped him build his dad's casket in our shop over a few evenings. Saturday we go to Jones Creek.
He and his father had built his grandpas coffin in their garage out of a few sheets of plywood. It looked like a shipping crate. Grandpa was strictly business and an engineer by trade. A year later when his grandma died we made her a beautiful cedar casket with a cross on top and nice raised panels. It still didn't do her justice, such a sweet lady.
Anyway, not sure where I am going with this. Life is short, and time goes by quicker every day. guess it made me wonder who is gonna build mine? I have seen some fancy caskets that are just works of art, you could park a small car in them. I think personally I am a bit partial to a simple cedar or pine box. Rough around the edges is just fine sometimes.
We recently received the news of the untimely passing of her uncle in a car accident. He was only in his late 50s and was the family historian in a lot of ways. Kind of hard to get to know but a really neat guy once he decided he liked you. He will leave a large void.
When her family met me and found out that I am a carpenter they asked me at dinner one evening if I had ever built a casket....they were serious. It turns out that many of their family members are buried in home built caskets. This is the 2nd time I have been privileged to build them one. Per his wishes, his son and I bought cedar from McCoy's amd built him a simple casket. No trim, no moulding, don't spend a dime more than you have to. So we went to Mcoy's and I helped him build his dad's casket in our shop over a few evenings. Saturday we go to Jones Creek.
He and his father had built his grandpas coffin in their garage out of a few sheets of plywood. It looked like a shipping crate. Grandpa was strictly business and an engineer by trade. A year later when his grandma died we made her a beautiful cedar casket with a cross on top and nice raised panels. It still didn't do her justice, such a sweet lady.
Anyway, not sure where I am going with this. Life is short, and time goes by quicker every day. guess it made me wonder who is gonna build mine? I have seen some fancy caskets that are just works of art, you could park a small car in them. I think personally I am a bit partial to a simple cedar or pine box. Rough around the edges is just fine sometimes.
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