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The depressing thing elderly New Zealanders are doing to lessen the costs of dying

The depressing thing elderly New Zealanders are doing to lessen the costs of dying

With the average price tag of between NZ$8000 (C$7704) and NZ$10,000 (C$9630) for a funeral in New Zealand, and the cost of a coffin itself ranging from about NZ$1,000 (C$963) to NZ$10,000, can you blame many seniors for looking for ways to cut corners and make some friends at the same time?

And that’s exactly what retirees from across the country are doing by forming clubs and coming together to build their own caskets.

According to The Guardian, more than a dozen coffin clubs have popped up in New Zealand since a former palliative nurse, Katie Williams, 77, created the Kiwi Coffin Club in Rotorua, a town on the North Island, six years ago.

“I had seen lots of people dying and their funerals were nothing to do with the vibrancy and life of those people. You would not know what they were really like,” Williams told The Guardian, adding that she had become a “perpetual mourner” because of her job and her age.

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“That they had lived, laughed and loved. I had a deep-seated feeling that people’s journey’s deserved a more personal farewell.”

Williams started the Kiwi Coffin Club out of her garage with no knowledge of how to build a coffin, no tools and no volunteers.

But some local handy men came to her rescue, and the club soon saw its ranks swell and it was forced to move to a larger facility.

Now the group builds their own coffins at the cost of NZ$250 (C$240), or a savings of 300 per cent, and also puts together children’s caskets, which they donate to a local hospital.

Williams said the clubs, in particular, appeal to the aboriginal Maori people, who often come from bigger families and struggle to deal with the “crippling costs” of funerals, as well as locals who come from “stiff-upper-lip backgrounds,” who in the past have had a hard time handling the death of a loved one.

“There is a lot of loneliness among the elderly, but at the coffin club people feel useful, and it is very social. We have morning tea and lunch, music blaring and cuddles,” said Williams.

“Our motto is: it’s a box until there is someone in it. And while it’s just a box, it bring us together.”