Fred Guentert, 89, of Orlando, Florida, has spent years getting ready to go. In his workshop he has been building his coffin — and not just any old coffin, either. Fred’s is an Egyptian, Pharoah-style coffin, and he’s been crafting it since the 80s. He’s an Egypt nut, you see.
Hand-painted red, black, gold and green and made of cedar to resist rot, the coffin is almost 7 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and sits in two pieces inside Guentert’s sawdust-filled workshop. The lid is adorned with a hand-carved image of the Egyptian god Osiris. There’s a colorful image of Isis near the base and, on the inside, a full-sized painting of Nut, the goddess of the sky. The Eye of Horus looks out from the side of the box.
For Fred, the Eyptian look, it seems, amounts to no more than necro-chic. He doesn’t actually buy into any of the ancient Egyptian nextworldly beliefs of King Tut & co. In fact, he’s an atheist.
Fred’s wife, Joyce, is wholly uninterested in the project, but finds it a good pretext for getting Fred out from under her feet when he’s getting on her nerves. “Why don’t you go work on your box?” she snaps at him.
Read the full story and watch the video interview with Fred and his coffin here.
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