自制棺材，新西兰人老有所乐
澳大利亚悉尼——罗杰·特里(Roger Terry)和妻子格蕾丝(Grace)对绗缝、钓鱼或读书俱乐部没什么兴趣。相反，他们每周二都和其他退休的朋友聚在一个被废弃的体育中心里制作棺材。新西兰各地都有自制棺材爱好者。
“We have a heap of fun,” said Grace Terry, 77, a former nurse in Hawke’s Bay, on the North Island of New Zealand. “I’ve seen people come alive making their own coffins.”
“我们乐趣多多，”现年77岁、新西兰北岛霍克斯湾的退休护士格蕾丝·特里说。“我看到人们给自己做棺材时神采飞扬。”
Mrs. Terry’s own coffin, painted mauve and decorated with deep purple hydrangea blooms, sits in the couple’s home, waiting to be lined.
格蕾丝·特里自己的棺材被漆成紫红色，饰以深紫色的绣球花，停放在夫妻俩的家中，等待装配内衬。
Mr. Terry, chairman of the Hawke’s Bay D.I.Y. Coffin Club and a former fiberglass molding specialist, said the club, established in 2013, had 120 members. The oldest is 94, with mid-70s being the average.
罗杰·特里以前是一名玻璃纤维模具专家，现为霍克斯湾DIY棺木俱乐部(Hawke’s Bay D.I.Y. Coffin Club)主席。他说该俱乐部创建于2013年，有120名会员。年纪最大的94岁，平均年龄则在75岁左右。
“It gives us old fellas something of interest, something to do,” he said. “But it also serves a purpose.”
“我们这些老家伙有了感兴趣的、能做的事情，”他说。“但它也顶用。”
The country’s first coffin club was established in 2010 by a palliative care nurse, Katie Williams, in a makeshift workshop in her yard in Rotorua, also on the North Island.
新西兰的首个棺材俱乐部，是由一位名叫凯蒂·威廉姆斯(Katie Williams)的安宁疗护护士于2010年在北岛罗托鲁亚自家院内的简易作坊里创办的。
“It grew from there,” said the treasurer of the Kiwi Coffin Club Rotorua, Joanne La Grouw, 66, who decorated her mother’s coffin, including the beading inside. The club’s motto is “fine and affordable underground furniture.”
“它从那里发展壮大，”罗托鲁亚奇异棺木俱乐部(Kiwi Coffin Club Rotorua)66岁的会计乔安娜·拉格豪(Joanne La Grouw)说。拉格豪为她母亲的棺材做了装饰，其中包括里边的小珠饰。该俱乐部的口号是“负担得起的优质地下家私”。
The caskets are inscribed with the club’s initials, K.C.C., and are built to meet national standards: Each has a waterproof lining and is strong enough to hold a body.
刻有该俱乐部首字母KCC的棺材是按照国家标准打造的：每一口都有防水内衬，而且足够结实，可以放一具遗体。
The coffins are made from particleboard kits and are shaped like traditional caskets or as rectangles.
棺材以成套的刨花板制成，形状与传统棺木类似或呈矩形。
They can also double as aboveground furniture at home, disguised with cushions or blankets, until it is time for their primary purpose.
用垫子或毯子伪装一番后，它们还可以在家中充当正常的家具，直至真正的使命降临的那一刻。
“We like to say it is only a box until you put someone in it,” said Ms. La Grouw, whose mother died at 94 last year.
“在把某个人装进去之前，我们喜欢说它只是一个箱子，”拉格豪说。她的母亲于去年过世，享年94岁。
The coffin kits cost about $170, significantly less than what an undertaker would charge for a coffin of similar quality. Club membership in Rotorua is about $7 a year and $17 in Hawke’s Bay.
一套棺材板的价格是170美元，大大低于殡仪馆出售的同等质量棺材的价格。在罗托鲁亚，每年的会费约为7美元;在霍克斯湾则为17美元。
Mrs. Terry said that once people finish creating their own coffins at the club, they often build others for charity, or return to help other members. “It’s very social,” she said.
格蕾丝·特里说，人们在俱乐部打完自己的棺材以后，常常出于慈善目的为他人制作棺材，或者回来给其他会员帮忙。“这也是一种社交，”她说。
