About 40 years ago, Virginia Gassel asked me to build her a coffin. She had heard that Scott Nearing, that original “back to the land” guy up in Cape Rosier, Me. actually slept on top of his. It served as the box spring for his mattress.

She wanted one made out of cedar so that she could store woolen blankets in it. The cedar of course would keep moths at bay. Together we picked out half a dozen foot-wide red cedar planks at Cottle’s. She wanted it to be very plain with straight sides and a flat top. It had to fit under her four-poster bed. Basically, a blanket chest long enough for her to fit into.

It was a pleasure to work with the clear red cedar. Virginia wanted it to have a couple of handles on the side for pulling it out from under the bed and for the top to be hinged. She was pretty thrifty except when it came to art. When I showed her a six-foot-long brass piano hinge, she insisted that it be installed on the outside edge of the lid so that it was visible.

The finished box was very pleasing to the eye. She let me enter it in the Agricultural Fair in the woodworking category. I put a note on it: “Why not have the use of your coffin while you are still alive? It can be a blanket chest, coffee table or stood upright with temporary shelving it can be a liquor cabinet. It will be one less thing that your family has to decide about during their time of grief.”

I was thinking that everyone would want one and maybe it could be the beginning of a cottage industry on Chappy. I guess that it was just a little too gruesome for the typical fair-goer. Even the judges were at a loss. I think that I got a white ribbon that had the words Honorable Mention printed on it.

With that introduction, here is an invitation from the Oak Bluffs Climate & Energy Advisory Committee to join them this Saturday, Feb. 22 at 1:30 p.m. at the Oak Bluffs Public Library for a conversation about Green Burial. Heather Massey and Joyce Maxner will lead a hybrid presentation and conversation about green burial on Martha’s Vineyard.

Part of the idea behind green burial is to refrain from burying  millions of gallons of embalming fluid, tons of steel, copper and bronze, millions of board feet of tropical hardwoods and tons of reinforced concrete when the goal is really to return you to the earth.

For more information and the Zoom link, Google Oak Bluffs Energy Committee. Look for the heading 2025 discussions and click on the event poster for Green Burial.