(CIBS) If Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has his way, he would be buried in a wicker basket or a coffin made from breadfruit board rather than the expensive and glamorous funerals nowadays.
“Funerals here, in this country, are getting too expensive – you give me an opportunity to talk about this; too expensive. I don’t mind what the funeral home people want to say., and they say Ralph your time will come just now,” Dr Gonsalves said.
He made the comment while responding to questions on the difference between a state funeral and an official funeral and whether there was a limit to the expenses to be borne by the state for a state funeral.
“I have given a task to someone to find out how much these wicker baskets, how much it will cost. You know, the sturdy wicker baskets and you put a good base; to see the cost of it and if I could buy one before I’m dead so I put it aside to bury me in.
“I want, even in death to rebel against this ridiculous… I don’t like to see money waste. And there are a lot of these funerals, people waste too much money,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the funeral homes keep adding things and charging more and more money. He said the death benefit monies from NIS (about $6,000) and from the Marriaqua Friendly Society, popularly called ‘Bunpan’, (about $6,000) “should be able to bury you with ease.”
“And if the wicker basket thing ain’t working properly, I have … unfortunately, we don’t have as much breadfruit board as we used to long ago, because I don’t mind to get buried in a breadfruit box,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said.
The Prime Minster added that he would not want a breadfruit tree to be cut down just to get the board to bury him because “people want breadfruit to eat.”
“And you drape it with a flag,” he added.
Dr Gonsalves also noted that after the funeral, there is a feast as is done in North America. He said the tradition was to have a ‘wake’ on the 40th day of a person’s death , and at that ‘wake’ cocoa tea was used.
