legends · 4 min read ·
Pre-Need Order Form
A man pre-pays his own funeral, and the coffin is made up for a guest in his empty hall.
**Lindqvist & Sons Funeral Directors · Pre-Need Arrangement Form**
**Client:** Paul Adair · **Date of order:** 1 Sept · **Arranged by:** the client, in person
- **Item · Specification · Notes**
- Coffin · Oak, plain, lined in cream · Client asked for it to be "a little bit deeper than usual"
- Dressing · Dark suit, grey tie, black shoes · Shoes to be polished
- Hair · Combed to the left
- Hands · Crossed at waist · Client requested the right hand on top
- Eyes · Closed
- Service · Non-denominational, 30 min · Client has chosen the music
- Music · "The Lark in the Clear Air" (instrumental)
- Final viewing · Lid open for one hour, then closed
*Client's additional note: please don't use the room at the back. I'd like it kept for my wife.*
· · ·
**Staff note (Lindqvist, 1 Sept)**
Client attended alone. Calm. Asked a number of practical questions about the lining, the handles, and how the lid would be fastened. Asked whether we could arrange for the coffin to be stored "somewhere he can't be seen" until needed.
I asked him whether he was unwell. He said no. He said he was just getting organised, because his wife had died in the spring, and he didn't want his daughter to have to make the decisions when the time came.
· · ·
**Client's letter (Paul Adair, 9 Sept)**
*Dear Mr Lindqvist,*
*Thank you for the arrangement. I want to add something. I've been sleeping poorly and I keep waking up in the chair by the window, with my hands crossed on my lap, and the lamp off. It's quite peaceful. The house is quiet, and I can hear the clock in the hall, and my wife's voice in the room at the back, very faint, reading to someone.*
*Please make sure the coffin is ready before the nineteenth. I'd like to be comfortable when I go.*
· · ·
**Staff note (Lindqvist, 14 Sept)**
Client's daughter, Alice Adair, called to say her father has been seen walking around the block at night, in his suit, with his hair combed, looking into the windows of the houses. She said he has been telling people he's already arranged his own funeral, and that they shouldn't be sad.
She asked whether we had any record of an order placed in her father's name for a coffin to be delivered to 14 Bramble Street. We do not. The order is on file, paid in full, with a delivery address for the nineteenth.
· · ·
**Funeral director's note (Lindqvist, 19 Sept)**
The coffin was delivered to 14 Bramble Street as ordered. The delivery driver reports the house was dark, with the front door open. He carried the coffin into the hall himself, as there was nobody to help him, and set it on the trestles by the staircase.
The lid was already open. Inside, the lining had been turned down, neatly, and the pillow was plumped and set at the head. The coffin had been made up for a guest.
· · ·
**Daughter's letter (Alice Adair, 22 Sept)**
*Dear Mr Lindqvist,*
*You're going to think I'm mad. I came to the house on the nineteenth and found the coffin in the hall. The lid was open. My father was not in it. He was in the chair by the window, in his suit, with his hands folded in his lap and his eyes closed. He looked peaceful, and very pale, and when I touched his hand it was cold, but he said, quite clearly, "Alice, you're not to cry. I've been practising."*
*The funeral home has been paid. I'd like to cancel the service, and I'd like the coffin taken back. But I don't think I can make him get in it.*
· · ·
**Staff note (Lindqvist, 25 Sept)**
Alice Adair brought her father's coffin back to the funeral home herself. She said she'd tried to put him in it twice, and each time he'd got out again, very politely, and sat back in the chair.
Eventually she left the coffin in our front room and asked whether we could arrange a service for the chair instead.
· · ·
**Final arrangement record (Lindqvist, 28 Oct)**
Service held. Non-denominational. Music: "The Lark in the Clear Air." Attendees: the client's daughter, and the client, seated in the front pew, dressed in his dark suit, grey tie, polished shoes, with his hands crossed on his lap and the right hand on top.
Interment took place on 30 Oct in the family plot at Ravensmere. The lid was closed at the family's request. The daughter has since taken her father's chair to her own flat. She says she doesn't sit in it.
*Staff note: the final viewing was not held.*