Death by design

SCITUATE, R.I. - Helen Busby has no plans to die anytime soon. But on a recent day, the 60-year-old Providence nurse was taking measurements for her coffin. It had to fit her petite 5-foot-4-inch frame and leave a few inches to spare in case she gains weight.

It had to be sturdy enough to hold dozens of books because, until she needs it, it will sit in her living room as shelving.

It also had to be painted with trees, clouds and maybe some birds, because Mrs. Busby’s favorite thing to do is walk in the woods.

“My kids think I’m crazy,” she said. “First, I’m designing my coffin. Second, I plan to use it as furniture before I go.”

Americans, specifically baby boomers who have made it a habit to do things their own way, are thinking outside the box when it comes to bidding farewell to the dearly departed.

“They want something different from what mom and mad and the grandparents had,” said George Dickinson, a professor of sociology at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

Custom-made caskets reflect a loved one’s passions. Acoustic guitars and electronic keyboards replace hymnals to provide a personal soundtrack of a memorial service. Cremated remains are shot into space, fashioned into jewelry and turned into reefs to help restore underwater habitats.

“These aren’t cookie-cutter funerals anymore,” said Maggie Wein, who works at Bradshaw Funeral Home in St. Paul, Minn.

Miss Wein said in her more than three years as an administrative assistant at the family run chain of homes, she has arranged everything from simple ceremonies to hours-long affairs. She helped plan a funeral for a movie lover that included screenings of favorite films and freshly made popcorn. She also arranged for a casket to be taken from the funeral home to a cemetery on a hayrack.

“The man loved hay-rides,” Miss Wein said. “We want to honor that.”

In the past decade, funeral professionals have become event planners, industry analysts say. They design theme-based services, interview family members to learn personal details about the deceased and go to hospitality seminars.

“You used to go to a funeral home expecting the grim reaper or Dracula to help you out,” said Mr. Dickinson, who has written textbooks and teaches classes on death and dying.

Now, he said, funeral homes host open houses that show off their services and the federal government mandates that they show price lists for comparison shopping.

“Boomers want bang for their buck. Even in the afterlife,” said Bill Burns, a funeral services analyst at the New Orleans-based brokerage firm Johnson Rice & Co.

Mr. Burns said the $16 billion funeral services industry has to respond to boomers’ desires if just to stay in business.

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