When you’re digging graves for a living, your mind tends to wander. When you’re 89 years old and have been doing it for 45 years with the same backhoe, it really wanders far.
So, on a slow day of digging, Canadian grave digger Jimmy Kickham decided that when he turned 90, he’d dig his own grave. Literally.
“I love digging. Just one of those things that gets into your system. It’s just work. Money. No matter what they wanted dug, I could do it,” he told the CBC.
That doesn’t mean he’s ready to jump into the hole in the ground. He sees it as no more extreme than writing a will. For his family, it’s one less thing to think about once he’s gone. “They’ll know it’s already done for me so they won’t have to worry. Just a matter of taking the top off off, opening it up, and that’s it,” he said.
Ever the grave-digging perfectionist, Kickham knows exactly how he wants his earthly remains to spend eternity: the “old-fashioned way,” with a pine box lowered into the hole and covered. The box is in place now, with just a few inches of soil on top.
“It’s something else. That’s one of a kind, I figure,” said another maintenance worker, Eric Gallant, according to the CBC. “The only thing that’s missing is his casket.”
Kickham added: “And me!”
He has no plans to hop into the hole soon, however. His 90th birthday is tomorrow, after all.
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