Teacher asks pupils to make her coffin

A Dutch primary school teacher dying of cancer is overseeing one last project among her pupils: they are making her coffin.

Eri van den Biggelaar, 40, has just a few weeks to live after being diagnosed last year with an aggressive form of cervical cancer.

She asked the woodwork teacher, a friend, to build a coffin for her. "Why don't you let the children make it?" replied Erik van Dijk.

Now pupils who normally plane wood for baskets and place mats have been helping with the finishing touches. They have already sawed more than 100 narrow boards and glued them together. Only the lid needs to be completed.

The coffin now stands in the middle of one of the classrooms.

None of the children considered it creepy or was afraid and nobody felt traumatised. Parents of the children involved all gave their consent.