The only casket I ever went shopping for was my mother's. I had company: my siblings.
We went to the showroom at the funeral parlor - O'Connor Brothers - in Worcester that our family has always gone out of - at least since my grandfather died in 1924.
My mother had always been quite clear about not wanting to have an elaborate casket. Truly, she would have been happy with the Boot Hill Special, a plain pine box fit for Doc Holliday, a knocked together coffin made out of particle board.
We weren't going to go that far, but we all knew that, if we went overboard, my mother would have risen up and started shaking her fist at us.
There were a number of caskets to choose from. The one that stood out was Kelly green, with a giant shamrock on the satin on the inside of the lid. There were also a number of decorative choices for "bumpers" to put on the corners of a plain casket to dress it up. They came in different themes: golf, lighthouses.
We went with a nice metal casket with something of an Art Deco design that reminded us of Chicago - my mother's home town - in the 1930's.
My husband was cremated, so no casket. Most of Jim's ashes were buried in the cremation equivalent of the Boot Hill Special. A small amount sit on my fireplace mantel, held in a miniature urn made out of Connemara marble.
Shopping for my mother's caskets and shopping online for that mini marble urn were both very sad occasions. But I cannot even begin to wrap my brain around how terrible it must be for parents to choose the casket for a dead child. Unfathomable under any circumstances. Even more unfathomable when your little one was murdered in a school massacre. A school massacre like Uvalde.
SoulShine Industries is a custom casket-maker located in Texas. Their mission:
The purpose is to let your loved one's life shine through our designs. What we do is far more than just painting caskets. Let our artwork tell their story!
In response to the Uvalde murders, SoulShine's owner, Trey Ganem, was approached by the Texas Funeral Directors Association to make custom caskets, telling the stories of the Uvalde children. Ganem agreed to do so. Eighteen of the kiddos, and one of the teachers, chose to work with Ganem's company.
The caskets were purchased through a company in Georgia that worked for 20 hours straight to produce them, Ganem says. They arrived in Texas by early Friday; Ganem says he finished all 19 caskets over the holiday weekend, working nearly three days straight -- and running on about six hours of sleep.
Ganem says he met with family members of the victims to curate customized designs and themes for each casket, ranging from softball to TikTok to Spider-Man. Marisol Gonzalez of SOLart Designs and Justin Watts of The Graphix House helped with graphics and decals for each casket, Ganem says. (Source: CNN)
The cost for each casket was between $3.4K to $3.8K, and Ganem's company has shouldered most of those costs. (He acknowledges that he has received some donations.)
Ganem is no stranger to mass killing events. He made caskets for some of the victims of the Sutherland Springs (TX) church shootout, and of the Las Vegas concert murder spree. He's also made caskets for some celebs, most notably singer Percy Sledge. The company ships caskets to all 50 states.
I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult it was for Ganem to meet with the family members of the slaughtered innocents. But I'm guessing that, amidst all the pain, having a casket that represented something about their children gave the families some tiny, trace element of comfort and maybe even joy.
Their little guy who loved Spiderman. The little girl who loved purple, pink, and rainbow unicorns.
Sure, this gesture will likely result in increased business for SoulShine, but it doesn't sound like this benefit was anywhere in the thought process for Trey Ganem. He just wanted to help.
There's not a lot of positive to say about Uvalde - or any of the other school massacres that communities around the country have endured over the years. But it is heartening that this company stepped in to help these families at the worst moment of their lives.
Uvalde...
God - if there is one - help us.
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