Retired clown saves big on homemade his and hers coffins

A former clown called Cou-Couisputting the finishing touches on the coffins he built for himself and his wife.Nojoke!

AsCou-Cou the Clown, Ron Christie used to entertain children in the Big River area south of Bathurst. Now retired, he stumbled upon instructions for coffin-making while surfing online.

Since he and his wife don't have a lot of money, and coffins can cost thousands of dollars, he decided to put his carpentry skills to the test.

"I'm very curious, eh?" Christie told CBC Radio'sMaritime Noon on Wednesday."I'm dyslexic, I can't read or write or anything like that. I go on the internet and I learn things from the internet."

Design choices

Christie, who is 61,said the coffinwebsite had a lot of models to choose from, so he asked his wife, Irene, to help pick one.

"It happened that my wife wasn't very into that," he said, but the couple settled on a design and Christie got started.

Each casket is made of pine, with interior padding and a pillow.Christie said he built them in a style that Dracula would have used narrow at the feet-end, and wide at the top, which is a popular design in the U.S.

He also added ornaments.Irene's coffin is decorated with carvings of birds and the schooner Bluenose, inhonour her Nova Scotian heritage. Christie's comes with musical notes and an accordion, he said.

"I wanted something personal, something different." he said.

Christie said all the supplies came from local hardware stores, but he had to keep going back because he made a mistake on the first coffin, which he had intended for himself.

The coffin turned out to be too short, and when he climbed in,"I had to bend my knees," he said.

"I started laughing and I said 'Irene, this one's going to have to be yours.'"

Stored in kitchen

The coffins cost more than he expected, about $400 each, but he said they're still a good deal.

Regular coffins are"so expensive, and I don't have any insurance or anything like that."

Irene, 70, has had mixedreactions to the project.

"Some people, theireyes nearly bug out," she said.

Christie said the funeral home doesn't mind the couple's use of their homemade coffins.

For now, hewill store the two coffinsin the "old kitchen," the part of their farmhouse that used to be the dining room but is now forstorage space.

"I'm prepared," he said of death. "I'm not scared. We all got to go there someday."