SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A Pennsylvania woman found herself searching the web last fall for something specific.
MADDYCHRISTINE HOPE BROKOPP: I just Googled, make your own basket - casket. And...
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: MaddyChristine Hope Brokopp has a terminal cancer diagnosis. She is in her 50s and undergoing treatment. It's not clear how much time she has. Over Valentine's Day, she made a road trip with her closest friends to Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley to meet with an expert weaver. Nic M. Neves has the story.
NIC M NEVES: The weaver in question is a casket-weaver.
MARY LAUREN FRASER: Yeah. There's the occasional person who wants to be involved in the weaving of their own casket.
NEVES: Her name is Mary Lauren Fraser, and her workshop is in Montague, Massachusetts.
FRASER: Just make yourselves at home. You can put more water on.
NEVES: She specializes in using willow to make both caskets and burial trays, which is like a casket but with a woven back and no lid. MaddyChristine Hope Brokopp has chosen to have a tray.
FRASER: I'll make the tray two inches longer than the height of the person. So MaddyChristine is 5' 5", so I'll make it 5' 7" or 8".
NEVES: A few days earlier, Fraser made a frame for it - five long rods, like ribs, made out of pine. And now that the friends are here, they'll take turns weaving the willow between the pine.
FRASER: Well, who wants to go first?
BROKOPP: I think I will (laughter).
NEVES: Brokopp volunteers to go first.
FRASER: Cool. All right.
NEVES: Leading up to this weekend, Brokopp wasn't sure how she'd feel doing this.
BROKOPP: So I like the material. I love how it feels. It's cool, and it's wet.
DAVID D'AMICO: You can feel how strong it is, too.
NEVES: David D'Amico is one of the friends.
BROKOPP: But it's not like I'm feeling, like, lots of emotions or anything. Like, I...
NEVES: She also knew it probably wouldn't be easy for her friends to say yes to the invitation.
BROKOPP: But I really just wanted to have a fun time doing this. And then I realized, well, that's OK, too. Like, I don't have to be crying here doing this.
NEVES: In many ways, it does feel like an ordinary weekend. They eat chocolate and talk about their drive to Massachusetts and their kids and their plans for spring. But at the same time, there is a sense in which the exercise is a bit surreal.
BROKOPP: It's just, can I really comprehend that I'm making my tray, my casket? I don't know that I can.
NEVES: Nita Landis reaches over and takes her friend's hand.
NITA LANDIS: I don't think any of us can.
NEVES: The other friends keep weaving and joking about something.
LANDIS: We were - Pam (ph) and I were saying on the way up, we know what we're coming to do, but there's just no way to imagine the moment when we lay you on that tray 'cause that's not where we are right now. So yeah.
D'AMICO: This just seems like...
NEVES: Here's D'Amico again.
D'AMICO: ...A team-building exercise that we're doing together. And maybe tonight, it'll hit some of us or all of us, what we just did today. But right now, it just seems too far removed.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
NEVES: Once the back of the tray is finished, the friends head to their hotel for the night, and Fraser keeps working.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
NEVES: On the morning of the second day, the tray is laying on the table at the center of the workshop. Fraser has woven long pieces of willow into the sides of the tray, which stand up straight like tall grass.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
NEVES: Brokopp takes a seat on the couch.
BROKOPP: I'm feeling quite tired from yesterday. So I have a lot of pain and tiredness, so probably just watching more than I'll be doing anything.
(SOUNDBITE OF CASKET-WEAVING)
NEVES: Meanwhile, the friends do their best to work together on the sides of the tray, but it's much trickier than yesterday. Fraser says that, actually, every part of weaving is really hard. The only reason the friends get to do any of this is because Fraser is giving them the easy bits. But even then, she spots a mistake that's being woven in and has to stop them to fix it.
FRASER: But...
LANDIS: I don't think it'll be noticeable.
FRASER: When you have got five people working on it (laughter)...
LANDIS: Yeah.
FRASER: ...I think it's bound...
D'AMICO: Five. Right.
FRASER: ...To happen.
LANDIS: Maddy, are you OK?
FRASER: Yeah. Leave these.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We need an extra stack (ph).
FRASER: No other way that it could come out (laughter).
NEVES: Fraser's been doing this for 11 years. They've been doing this for about four hours.
(SOUNDBITE OF CASKET-WEAVING)
NEVES: From the couch, Brokopp watches them trying their very best.
How does it feel watching them do it?
BROKOPP: It's great. This is exactly what I wanted. But we came from far to do this, and it's such a generous gift that they all made the drive.
NEVES: It's really moving to watch them doing it.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah. And that...
BROKOPP: Yeah. They're making something that I'm going to be in.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
NEVES: A few hours later, they're done making the object that will be used to lower their friend into the ground. They look down together on a long wicker basket with a raised hood like a baby bassinet. The whole thing is a mixture of light brown, orange and green, with six handles made of cotton rope. Fraser looks to Brokopp as she puts on the final touches.
FRASER: Do you think that you want to lay in it? Try it on?
BROKOPP: I've thought about it, and I think I do not want to try it on.
FRASER: Yeah. It makes sense.
BROKOPP: Yeah.
LANDIS: It's not time yet.
NEVES: The ordinary fact persists - MaddyChristine Hope Brokopp is very much still alive and is surrounded by friends. She intends to keep living until she's gone.
For NPR News, I'm Nic M. Neves.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: And this story was edited by Andrea de Leon.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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