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May 18, 2008 10:55 pm US/Central
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Class Allows Students To Build Their Own Casket
(WCCO)
Before they started, Randy Schnobrich needed some measurements. He pulled out a tape measure and strung it along Karla Stromgren's shoulders.
He measured at 5 foot, 6 inches tall before declaring, "Let's see how much room you need in that thing."
He was fitting her for a casket.
Schnobrich had just met Stromgren the day before, but the two had talked over the phone about their woodworking project several times. He is an accomplished woodworker but had never built anything like this before. In fact, the class hadn't been taught at the
North House Folk School in Grand Marais for years.
"After talking to her, it became obvious I wasn't going to say no to her," he said.
Stromgren will tell you she has never been the handy type. But, for some reason, the weekend class just came easy, as if it was something she was always supposed to do.
"I wish I had done this earlier in my life," she said. "It's not too late."
It's something she might not have said a year and half ago, when Stromgren was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. At the time, Stromgren told the doctors she wanted a good two years, and that's exactly what she's gotten.
The day after Stromgren was diagnosed she quit her job as teacher with Minneapolis Public Schools. She started riding the train to see her grandchildren and doing things she'd never think of doing before.
"I'm happy about things, even simple things like the train being late ... well, that gives me time to read more," she said. "I just decided to look on the bright side and that's not my nature. I think this was a wakeup call. Even the children said, 'Mom, you seem happier than you have ever before.'"
On one of those train rides, Stromgren decided she wanted a simple pine box instead of a fancy coffin to serve as her casket. She cancelled her order with the funeral home and signed up to take Schnobrich's casket making class. She brought along her friend, Jane, and together, the three worked all weekend long.
They told stories about their families, took breaks when Stromgren needed a nap and laughed about what the woodworkers in her family might think of the final product.
"I think the children will say, 'It's just like mom,' and the family will say, 'Good grief, she couldn't afford anything better?' 'Oh, it's that crazy cousin, look what she did this time,'" she laughed. "Generally my family on both sides is very formal and they probably won't say anything."
It's that sense of understanding that made her a good candidate for the class. Until she came along, it hadn't been taught since the early '90s when the North House Folk School started. At that time, a mortician and ministers took it, along with two friends who built a casket for their friend with Lou Gehrig's disease.
"He never saw the casket he would be buried in because he didn't want to put pressure on his friend," said Mark Hanson, a founder of the school. "There wasn't a dry eye in the house on that one."
He taught that class and has built dozens of caskets, including his own. He remembers "talking about good things" in each class and said all of this students were "squared away spiritually and a lot of fun to be around, a lot of laughing."
Stromgren did almost all of the work over the weekend. She cut the planks with a power saw, hammered in the sides, and even stripped the bark off the rounded, more comfortable handles. She asked for those specifically because her pallbearers will be women and she didn't want to hurt their hands.
"Just her outlook on things is amazing," Schnobrich said as he oversaw the project. He called the casket another one of "Karla's ducks" she's put in row.
"I think the sooner in life all of us can figure out what those priorities are, the better the life we'll have," he said.
They talked very little about the cancer and even less about when the casket will settle in its final place in Wisconsin. On the second day, when the structure of the box was complete, Stromgren hesitated when Schnobrich asked her to get inside to drill a hole. Eventually, she decided it was OK.
"It does make it a lot more real," she said. "Yeah, this is really going to fit me. That's mine."
And slowly, as it came together, the room got quiet -- until it was done. Then, the casket's future inhabitant stared at it in silence as Jane whispered in her ear, "You did it."
"Actually seeing where I'm going to be, I feel comforted by that. I feel comforted now that I know where I'm going to be," Stromgren said. "It's one last thing I think about and I think I'll go on with my life."
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