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FROM
CUBA
Handle with care: Casket ready to come apart
before burial
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 1 (Rigoberto González
Morales, Cubanacán Press /
www.cubanet.org) - The grieving relatives
of Bienvenida Moreno, deceased at
age 83, were too worn-out to protest by
the time a funeral-home employee pointed
out her poorly-made casket was about to
lose its bottom.
Just before the appointed time at which
the funeral procession was to leave Camacho
funeral home in Santa Clara, an employee
summoned the service coordinator and pointed
out the government-supplied casket was not
likely to make it to burial in one piece;
its bottom was apparently ready to let go.
The service coordinator determined that
no matter; all that had to be done was to
pick up the casket by its bottom so that
it would not break. When it was put in the
hearse, the coordinator instructed funeral
personnel: Handle with care and do not tilt.
The caskets, made by the Santa Clara casket
factory, uses the lowest quality materials,
usually a local pine, mango, or even kapok
wood. There are few frills, and the assembly
is also of shoddy quality.
Moreno died after two days in hospital.
Relatives had to endure an unexplained wait
of over six hours for the body to be released
from the morgue.
Versión
original en español
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