Yes, I've done it once. It was my 96 year old Grandfather's funeral on my mom's side. I watched your video and remember loading it into the hearse. This funeral, more than any other, really disturbed me. I was so mentally distraught by the end of the service in the church that I initially forgot to head to the casket for transport. Anyways, by the time I realized what was going on, I see the casket outside waiting for me and the hearse to arrive. I helped lift it into the hearse but I was on the top side of it, so it made handling it very awkward even though it was a short distance to cover.
At the cemetery, I moved the casket from the hearse up a small hill to the site of the burial. It was heavy but there were six of us total so it was do-able, but still very awkward. The ground was soft and wet and I kept thinking one of us was going to fall. Naturally, there was already a small gathering watching the movement of the casket. It's been almost 18 months since his death and I still think about him a lot. He was a great man shaped by the Great Depression.
At the cemetery, I moved the casket from the hearse up a small hill to the site of the burial. It was heavy but there were six of us total so it was do-able, but still very awkward. The ground was soft and wet and I kept thinking one of us was going to fall. Naturally, there was already a small gathering watching the movement of the casket. It's been almost 18 months since his death and I still think about him a lot. He was a great man shaped by the Great Depression.
Thanks for sharing, bud.
The key part is that they are heavy with or without a body. I did see pics of Andy Kaufman lookin' pretty thin in his final days(?), thus was still taken aback when I saw only four men, one elderly, handlin' the coffin in the video like it was light. At the end, the oldest man on the left seems to push the thing in all by himself, albeit maybe rollers where in place. Take a look at that video again and see how none of the four are struggling much while preforming a task normally done by six able body individuals.
Maybe the casket was biodegradable or something? The video quality isn't great, but I didn't see the casket really reflect much light or give much of a sheen. When I carried the casket, there were six of us, it was heavy and I remember a reflection of light off the casket even though it was an overcast sky that day. It wasn't an especially lustrous coat of lacquer or whatever on the casket, either. I think rollers were assisting towards the end but the other thing is that most of the weight was on the front two pall-bearers who are partially blocked from view around 6:10. When they go down the steps, the two in the front move down the stairs pretty quickly, so I think most of the weight was on them until the casket was level again. By that time, they were almost to the hearse.
In this case, however, I think the casket must've been really light and probably made from a cheap material so that a crew of four, with a roster touting senior citizens, could handle it without many problems.
If I was a conspiracy theorist I would just say, "duh, that's cuz there's no body in that casket, he's alive!"
