Galicia woman, 99, bought coffin, niche and obit 20 years ago

Josefa Rego, known as 'Fina de Rivera' by her friends and neighbours, passed away yesterday aged 99 – two decades after buying the coffin she kept in her lounge.

She is even known to have had pictures of her taken lying inside it whilst still alive to see what she would look like at her funeral during the 'open coffin' session.

But none of this was with morbid intentions, say those who knew her – she was a 'fun person' with a 'very black sense of humour', according to José María Teixido, who owned the funeral parlour near her house.

Teixido admitted when Fina first went into the shop 20 years ago, just after they had arranged her husband's funeral, asking to buy her own coffin so she could keep it in her house, they refused, thinking she was suicidal.

But she 'managed to convince a local carpenter' to make one to her required specifications, and Teixido's company then sourced the material for the inside and fitted it.

Fina then contracted the firm's photography service to take pictures of her inside the coffin, to get an idea of what she would look like at her funeral, and even commissioned them to write her obituary.

This was 15 years ago, when she also arranged the fleet of vehicles her loved ones would be transported in to the church of Santa Mariña in the town of Guitiriz (Lugo province) where she wanted the service to be held.

Her forward planning meant that, yesterday, the required obituary was published and the already-booked fleet and church were duly employed.

Teixido said when he went to collect the coffin from inside the flat it had shared with its future occupant since 1997, a note had been placed in a prominent location with a set of keys.

The keys were for Fina's niche at Guitiriz cemetery, and the note explained this and indicated where it was.