It was my Granny's funeral yesterday and she had a wicker coffin

[bran]

It's the first time that I've seen one and it was really pretty, somehow more cosy than a wooden one. I think it was quite a bit lighter too as they only needed four to carry the coffin (which is fortunate as my bonkers uncle objected to two of the possible six).

It was, on the whole, a really good funeral. I can't help thinking that Granny would have approved of it even though it was the one thing in her life that she didn't try to have total control over.

Sorry for the loss of your granny, bran.

My friend had a wicker type coffin 2 years ago; I think (but may be wrong) that they are more environmentally friendly.

Sorry about your loss bran.

WIcker coffins are beautiful.

Hope the send off went okay - sounds a bit eventful re the bonkers Uncle?

Sorry for your loss.
My Granny had a wicker coffin and my grandpa had added flowers from their garden around the edge. It was beautiful.

Sorry for your loss.

I've never heard of wicker coffins, as you say, they sound cosy. My mum refused to have anything other than wood for my dads coffin, for fear of us looking too cheap!

Sorry about your granny bran. Those coffins are really pretty aren't they?

We chose a bamboo one for my brother last year and it was lovely, pale bamboo colour with a couple of thin green stripes round it. Bamboo handles.

It wasn't the most stable and we couldn't put his guitar and coffee machine on it as planned, well not while it was carried in, but we put them on once it had come to a stop. Flowers would have been fine. I imagine a wicker one would have been stiffer.

havoc, they're slightly more expensive than a standard wooden one (both wicker and bamboo) but not by much. Your mum got it the wrong way round!

The bonkers uncle was quite restrained nickytwotimes, compared to the last 40 or so years anyway.

The whole thing turned quite jolly after the actual funeral. I think funerals of very old people (she was 94) are much less sad than for young people. Especially when, like Granny, they had a healthy, pain-free and active life until very near the end. You don't have that gutting feeling of missed potential that the death of a young person brings.

I will miss her though, she was a linchpin holding the family together and she knew so much about everything. She spoiled me (a bit) when I was a child and always had time to spend with me. She had lived through some incredibly interesting periods of change and had plenty of stories to tell. I very much hope to be as active and compos mentis as her right up until I die (which I suspect will be much younger than her).

My Grandad died about 15 years ago - he had a bio degradable cardboard type coffin.... not really sure why... cost I think

My other grandad has set up everything so that his body will be left to medical research.. was very about it, but its what he wants, and there is nothing to stop us having a celebration of his life/funeral type thing, just without a body.

Sorry for your loss also.

The wicker coffins are lovely. My dad died last year and we looked at Wicker coffins but ended up going with a heavy duty cotton coffin made by a company in Yorkshire. It was lovely, really soft and comfy. It had a cardboard interior covered by the cotton fabric and his name was embroidered onto a little cotton panel and fixed to the top and the end by toggles. They also make a woollen version which looks good.

I am really glad the funeral was a positive experience for you and your gran sounds like a very interesting and robust lady.

his name was embroidered on two cotton panels, one on top and one at the foot of the coffin. I made it sound like one panel was fixed between top and bottom.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother Jux. How lovely to put the things he loved on the coffin.

EofJ, when I saw the coffin I had the strongest urge to weave ivy through the wicker. The flowers must have looked lovely on your Granny's coffin. Granny was a great one for decorating with greenery and flowers. She was an accomplished horticulturist, like most of the family (except me unfortunately).

I only heard one person say they would have preferred a wooden coffin, I think he felt that wicker was too insubstantial for the formality of the occasion. It did remind me strongly of a very large version of the log basket that she kept beside the fire, but I quite liked that too.

Glad it was a good send off.

Love the log basket observation.

Ah, there's a bonker Uncle in every family, isn't there?

my mum had a wicker coffin - it looked quite pretty with the flowers on top in the tiny church in midsummer. Yes it is more environmentally friendly.

very sorry about the loss of your granny bran and your brother Jux - I'd love a wicker or bamboo coffin (and a woodland burial) - the cotton one sounds lovely too.
I read somewhere,or heard,that wicker,although natural and eco friendly takes more fuel to burn in the crem than a standard wooden coffin, so isn't entirely eco really. Though if everyone was environmentally minded they'd opt for woodland burial.

She was indeed interesting and robust, which seems to be the post mortem euphimism for bossy and difficult. There was only one person of her generation at the funeral as she had outlived everyone else. That mourner was a very close friend of my grandfather and is renouned in family lore for having told Grandpa that Granny was the most difficult woman he had ever met.

I once saw a cardboard one for a teenager COVERED in comments from friends and family & pictures and everything. I thought that was a nice idea.

My grandma had a wicker coffin, too. It looked beautiful with flowers woven around the edge, and somehow less horribly enclosing and final than the traditional kind. I think I would like a coffin like that when it's my turn.

bran, i qiute liked that it looked like something she would have in her corner gathering, well, not dust, but you know what I mean.
It didn't look like a coffin, it looks like a nice cosy basket, which really suited her.

i think thats lovely - in catholic funerals the coffin is covered in a white cloth called the pall - this represents the baptism robes. It almost seems fitting to have a wicker coffin which is what moses baskets are made of - i want a wicker coffin.

geordieminx, i think it is a wonderful thing that your grandad is doing, you should be very proud, although i do understand your reservations

we buried my mother in a willow coffin last June, and covered it in garden flowers. It looked beautiful and was comforting for my children to see as well. She would have hated the waste of money and decent wood involved in a traditional coffin . The only note of caution is that when we visited her grave a few weeks later it had settled quickly and substantially because the coffin isn't as strong and that was a little shocking at the time because we weren't expecting it. But the verger came and repaired it and so all was fine. i am so glad that when I remember her coffin in the church all I an see is an oval basket covered in alliums roses and sweet williams.

For a burial wicker coffins are far more environmentally friendly and if you have a woodland burial then traditional coffins are not allowed as they don't bio-degrade nearly fast enough and far too much brass.

My wife had a wicker coffin and it was also far less imposing and threatening, which seemed just right.

i want to have a wicker coffin with pink roses threaded round the edge- i think it is less formal and like someone else said less threatening iyswim. I would like to be 'dressed to impress' even on my last outing

sorry to hear about your loss, but glad it was as good a day as can be expected.

traditional coffins are quite frightening I think - I remember as a 13 yr old seeing my first at a funeral and feeling quite shocked- something basketty is more natural somehow.
I'd like to be surrounded by lavender or sweet smelling herbs. I did think that a sandalwood coffin would be lovely as it'd smell so nice but probably cost as fortune.

Your Grannys wicker coffin sounds lovely Bran. I'm sure she would have approved.

We've actually chosen a similar sounding one for our Daughter as I really don't like the thought a wooden box. The wicker / cane caskets are beautiful.