Ready for death: Elderly Iligan couple keeping caskets at home

The Tapic couple, Luciano, 85, and Flora, 82, residents of Barangay Kiwalan, Iligan City, prepared their caskets years ago so that their children will not be bothered to look for caskets for them when they will die, they said. (Divina M. Suson)

ILIGAN CITY – This couple is ready to die.

For years now, Flora Tapic, 82, and her husband Luciano, 85, have had their caskets ready inside their home in Barangay Kiwalan here.

Flora said their son, a carpenter, made her casket in 2000, while Luciano’s was done two years ago.

They said they were preparing for “when the time comes.”

Flora revealed that she first wanted her casket done in the shape of a ship — an inspiration she got during her younger days when they brought their farm products to barter with canned goods to the ship crew in Kiwalan.

“But I want to be buried in our farm, in the mountain,” she said.

Her children they can’t make a casket shaped like a mountain.

“So my children said ‘Better make an airplane casket,’” she said as she shows her casket with a protruding “plane wing” on its side.

Luciano’s, however, is the usual type.

“She has many demands, and I just let her be,” Luciano said when asked why he decided his casket in standard form.

Both caskets are placed at an area next to their grandchildren’s sleeping area.

“The children are used to seeing and sleeping next to the caskets,” Flora said.

Some would think that preparing for one’s death is bad omen, but for Flora and Luciano, it is better to be ready.

“It’s good to be ready than burden our children when the time comes,” Luciano said.

Flora has another demand– that her body be wrapped in white cloth before it is taken inside a tomb.

“Then this casket I prepared will be put at the top of my tomb as decoration,” she said.

Flora has also prepared the white cloth and the dress she wants to wear on her wake.

Some people also think that those preparing for their death will instead live longer.

Luciano, however, insisted that, “If it is your time, it’s your time.”

The couple has six children, 21 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. /je