BPM MediaA tea-lover has been granted her final wish by being buried in a coffin that looks like a giant box of tea bags.
Tina Watson, 73, drank as many as 40 cups of tea day, and so she asked her daughter Debs Donovan for the unusual send off.
‘It’s typical of Mum,’ Debs, from Leicestershire, said of her mother’s final wish. ‘She had a wicked sense of humour and drank about 30 or 40 cups of tea a day, every day. She just loved having a cuppa.’
Debs said her mum was always able to have a big smile on her face, despite fighting cancer twice and having both legs amputated.
She said:
We got chatting about her coffin after the funeral of my stepdad Peter four years ago.
She just blurted out, ‘I want to be buried in a coffin that looks like a giant box of tea bags.’
I burst out laughing and said, ‘Okay, but it’s got to be Typhoo because you only get an “oo” with Typhoo’.
Mum cracked up at that and we just fell about laughing. She said she was deadly serious about the coffin so that was that.
BPM MediaA funeral service was held on Friday (November 1) at Gilroes Crematorium in Leicester, where Tina was brought in by family members in her giant tea bag box.
Debs talked about how her mother never let ill health get in the way of her incredible humour.
She said:
She lost one leg after the bite got infected after being bitten by an insect in Spain 14 years ago.
Mum then lost the other leg when the infection spread further. She never let anything get her down. She always saw the funny side of things even when there wasn’t a funny side.
BPM MediaFuneral director Paul Pender said:
It was one of our more unusual requests but we were happy to be able to make it happen.
I got in touch with the guy that helps us with customised coffins and he produced the goods.
It is always nice when the customer gets what the customer wants.
BPM MediaDebs said:
I just know mum would be looking down and laughing like a drain at her coffin.
I’ll go home later and put the kettle on and raise a cup to Mum.
What an incredible woman. Rest in peace, Tina.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.