Images of the burial of the legendary Ángel Nieto show a procession of motorcyclists accompanying the coffin that summer of 2017 in Ibiza. “It seemed incongruous to me that you like motorcycles all your life and that you take your last trip by car,” explains Lorenzo, who drove his motorcycle that day to say goodbye to the pilot. That reflection, and other experiences, he recycled into a business idea, the funeral sidecar.
Baptized with the commercial name “Your last trip”, the entrepreneur and his wife, Laura, have exhibited one of their vehicles at the Funermostra fair that was held this week at Feria València. The funeral services fair has brought together more than a hundred exhibitors to tell about the innovations in a sector that never ends, but that seeks to get ahead, like anyone else, in the way of doing it.
The sidecar project had been on Lorenzo's mind for some years, but making it happen was difficult due to “bureaucratic obstacles.” “If they used to take them in horse-drawn carriages, how could it not be done now in a sidecar?” He fought for the permit and in 2020 he was able to launch it, but as in almost all recent stories, the covid was an obstacle to the business. “The pandemic should have taught us to de-dramatize everything, this is the cycle of life, but it is difficult,” says Laura. The company, from Zaragoza, offers services throughout Spain through funeral homes and on its own website.
But if it's not on a motorcycle, the coffin goes up to the classic Mercedes and even a Tesla, which the manufacturer VIO Europe has exhibited at the fair, another example of how the sustainable theme is already permeating the sector. It is seen in proposals such as that of Arcae, a coffin company from Valencia, which has brought a Viking ship made of recycled materials to the pavilion to show its latest innovation, a coffin especially suitable for cremation. “It is a nod to the first incinerations that took place in Europe,” says Jose Morales, third generation of this firm whose production is destined for incineration.
Another Valencian, Féretros Mercedes, displays a white coffin on which her family and friends can daub and which goes to the afterlife with “rest, friend” written in permanent pen.
A company also participates that markets crematorium ovens that recycle metal waste and others that manufacture biodegradable urns of different styles and designs, in appeal to cemeteries as 'forests of life'. “Nature is linked to tranquility, to the calm of emotions, and that is now the trend,” explains José Vicente Aparicio, president of Funermostra, who has recreated a garden cemetery at its entrance.
And in this line is another novelty, the Semper Vivens kit that guarantees a do it yourself way to turn the ashes of the deceased into a plant. Funnel, decanter, programmed irrigation bottles and a probe to measure humidity are some elements of the pack, valued at 2,800 euros. “I don't want any family to have a kit that doesn't work,” says Pedro Ramis, its creator, whose skin crawls when he explains how the leaves sprout after planting.
He owes his excitement and determination to put together this project to a promise, made years ago when his family lost a 15-year-old boy. His ashes, scattered in a pot that was supposed to bloom, remained there… “We thought it should happen to more people and having the ability to do something, I knew I would do it,” he says. He now sells it with an urn, white, beautiful and of Balearic design - the signature Joan Pere Català Roig - where to deposit the ashes of those who have passed away. A duel that is now also thought in green.
