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By Morning Sentinel staff 01/07/2008

enlarge Staff photo by Jim Evans

SIMPLE: Pegs hold the coffin together.

enlarge Staff photo by Jim Evans

A SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE: Chuck Lakin wants people to know that there are alternatives to funeral homes when a loved one dies. Part of his effort has been to design and build simple pine coffins.

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Not having planned a funeral prior to his dying, Lakin stood there wanting to help as the funeral director whisked the body away.

"Four days later, we got the box of ashes," he recalled. "I wanted to be part of the process, but we did not know what we were doing."

Now, 29 years later, Lakin gives lectures on do-it-yourself funerals and makes coffins in the basement of his Barnet Street home that can double as a piece of furniture -- bookcase, entertainment center or coffee table -- until needed.

"You don't have to have a funeral director in order to be able to handle a body or handle the death of a loved one," he says.

A volunteer for Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area, Lakin, 62, has made coffins for the organization's office and children's grieving center on Main Street. It takes him about 12 hours to make a coffin, depending on style and finish, that sells for around $500. In his workshop, he demonstrated in less than three minutes how to assemble one of his plain pine coffins using only wooden pegs.

"Bookcase coffins I make are plywood with solid wood edging and handles," he said. "Other coffins are made out of walnut, mahogany or pine. Pine is the least expensive; it's kind of what people expect, I think -- you know, the 'plain pine box.' Poplar takes a stain beautifully. It has longer, straighter lines."

A tall and lanky man with white hair and friendly blue eyes, Lakin has been a woodworker for 36 years. He retired in July from Colby College, where he was a reference librarian at Miller Library for 22 years. A native of Iowa, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1967 and served in the Navy for four years. In 1983, he built the Barnet Avenue home he shares with his wife, Penney Floyd.

In addition to helping with construction needs of Hospice, such as building wheelchair ramps, Lakin also is trained to work with clients but says he does not offer information about do it-yourself funerals or discuss the fact that he makes coffins unless someone asks.

Over the last 10 years, he has made about eight coffins, including those for a couple in Madison. The woman was diagnosed with cancer and told she had about a year to live.

"She had seen the coffins at Hospice and wanted to know more about them," he said.

He built a coffin from wood the couple had on hand and when her husband saw it, he wanted one also, according to Lakin. She was ultimately buried in that coffin in a family cemetery on their property.

Robert Cezak, owner of Re-books in Waterville, has a coffin Lakin made and says he thinks it's practical to have one at the ready. Lakin had constructed bookshelves for the bookstore.

"I had asked him if he would assemble one that didn't have any nails in it," Cezak said. "It's in a closet in the shop. You could use it for shelving. I would use it for shelving if I had the room."

Lakin says people can make coffins themselves. He notes that the law in Maine allows for just about any type of box to be used as a coffin as long as it is enclosed.

"It has to be sturdy enough to support a body and you can't allow the body to be seen if you're transporting it," he said. "It cannot be just wrapped up in a sheet -- it has to be in an enclosed container."

Lakin speaks to Hospice volunteers about do-it-yourself funerals. He has talked to students in a Colby psychology class on death and dying and brought a coffin to class and assembled it. He also has spoken to students in classes on death and dying at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. On Jan. 15, he will do a lecture on the subject at Back Door to the Moon, a shop on Lithgow Street in Winslow.

"All I'm trying to do is tell people there's an alternative -- I'm not there advocating for do-it-yourself funerals," he said. "People assume the only choice is to call a funeral director and have him come over and take the body."

Lakin suggests people contact the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maine at www.funerals.org for information about basic funerals. He also recommends people visit the Web site finalpassages.org for information about alternative funerals -- and read the book "Grave Matters" by Mark Harris.

Lakin says direct cremation services are available that will pick up a body and take it to a crematorium in an appropriate container and complete all necessary paperwork for less than or about $1,000.

Lakin made a coffin for one family which kept the body at home and, later, took it to a crematorium themselves.

"Friends came by. The grandkids were there. They got to see the body and those kids are probably having fewer hangups about death than we have. They were able to put things in the coffin. They wrote things on the coffin. They drew pictures on it. It was a much easier, much shorter grieving process for them."

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

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