A Casket for Thor

Written by Lisa Heineman

This idea for the service evolved slowly for us as we thought through our options and turned out to be a real comfort.

We bought a plain pine casket (ordered from an orthodox Jewish supplier by our non-denominational funeral home director), and then we finished it ourselves using an oil we bought at the hardware store. We found it to be a real labor of love, as if we were preparing the room in which Thor would rest with our own hands – which is exactly what we were doing. Since I have a 17-year-old (then 16) who’s a wonderful painter, we asked him to paint the lid, and he painted a very peaceful and moving picture of a baby still in the womb. This became our way of giving some of Josh’s art to Thor to take with him. This last part might not be for everyone, but I can imagine that having some role in preparing the casket could be healing for a lot of people. We made photos of the lid and used them for the thank-you cards to send to the people who provided meals, made donations, etc.