In Rotorua where I live we have a very strong U3A group, University of the Third Age, to encourage people

over 50 to learn new things and they were looking for new groups and out of

the blue came into my head I would like to make my own coffin.

Well it was dead silence, dead silence.

But at the end of the meeting, there was a cue of people to see me.

So I called a meeting of some oldies I knew and cared about and we started in my garage and carport. That was in 2010, February 2010.

Coffin Club, a documentary for the BBC World Service by Kathy Fitzgerald.

The bedrooms were full of people having little group meetings,

everybody bought food, every room of the house was involved in coffins. chickens.

Ladies and men with no knowledge of carpentry or anything, wielding screwdrivers and all sorts of things.

It was so, so much better than I'd ever ever imagined. I'm in New Zealand, a motor-a-orua, a tourist town famous for its hot springs,

sulfurous smell, and increasingly its coffin club.

A group of 30 or 40 older people who get together once a week to chat, laugh, and decorate coffins.

Did you start making yours at any point in this?

Oh, I was the first one we had to have a prototype and I'm a big

big tat lady and so I had an oblong one.

It was started by Katie Williams.

Huge heart, very naughty sense of humour,

giver of extraordinary cuddles.

The kind of woman I'd follow into battle, even if she does

stand five foot nothing in her socks. Just an aside I'm now looking and making friends with handsome strong young men because it might be appropriate

at the end for them to be my poor bearers rather than little old men like this little old woman.

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