"Any idiot can get an airplane off the ground, but an aviator earns his keep by bringing it back anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances that man and God can dream up." ~~Walter Cunningham
Godspeed Lt. Prendergast. Jolly good show.
Posted on 05/11/2007 4:47:35 AM PDT by Daffynition
As a proud and courageous RAF pilot, he served with distinction during the Second World War.
And when the time came for Terry Prendergast to make his final sortie, his family wanted him to go in appropriate style.
So they built a coffin in the shape of his beloved Hawker Hurricane fighter plane - complete with cardboard cockpit, wings, propeller and tailplane.
They even painted it in camouflage colours and wrote on the side 8608 - the number of the plane the flight lieutenant flew in the war.
Mr Prendergast was then taken to his local crematorium where his widow Rodica, 83, and four children and ten grandchildren gave him a fitting send-off.
His son Andy Prendergast, 53, a film-maker from London, said: "It was a novelty way to say goodbye to Dad but at the same time it was an act of love.
"Some people might think it is disrespectful to put your father in a cardboard coffin but Dad would have loved it.
"If he had been there he would have joined in the building of it and told us which bits should go where.
"I can tell you the funeral director was a bit taken aback when he arrived.
"We were thinking about having the Dam Busters music at the service but thought that would be a bit over the top and decided against it."
After joining the RAF, Mr Prendergast was posted to Burma. He was shot down in 1944 in a Hawker Hurricane after a dogfight with five Japanese planes.
He was rescued by villagers in a jungle and then served at an air station nearby before being sent back to Britain. After the war he became a mechanical engineer, married Rodica in 1946 and lived with her in Bradford Peverell near Dorchester, Dorset.
He had an enduring love of flight, and continued to paraglide until he was 82.
He died last week aged 85 following a short illness.
His family bought a ready-made 7ft x 5ft cardboard coffin for £300 - these are marketed as environmentallyfriendly alternatives to traditional ones - before customising it.
Mr Prendergast jnr - who was helped by his brother Ian, 49, and several younger members of the family - said his father would have approved.
"Dad was a frugal chap. Every single bit of cardboard we used to make the plane he had stored religiously in the garage for future use."
"Any idiot can get an airplane off the ground, but an aviator earns his keep by bringing it back anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances that man and God can dream up." ~~Walter Cunningham
Godspeed Lt. Prendergast. Jolly good show.
Misleading headline? Am I correct in assuming they didn’t bury him in a “grave” but they cremated his body inside the carboard airplane box?
Yes, he was cremated. And the headline might be misleading ... it’s still a charming story.
This hero is going to spend eternity in an airplane? That’ll teach him to buy a ticket on Northwwest
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings,
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Rest in peace Flight officer.
Okay, kids, very funny — now take Daddy out of that box and put him back in the garage. And wash your hands extra good before dinner!
LOL ... he won’t be the first pilot who had a coffin in the shape of a plane ... rest his soul.
Beautiful Thank you. As every one of these WWII vets passes, I cry a little bit. Heroes in my book.
Mr Prendergast jnr - who was helped by his brother Ian, 49, and several younger members of the family - said his father would have approved.
"Dad was a frugal chap. Every single bit of cardboard we used to make the plane he had stored religiously in the garage for future use."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbwYTfoiHII
It is not at all respectful but Daddy loved it. It took me a few hours to film and hours and hours to dub. Like the cardboard coffin it was a little act of love.
What about the newspaper articles?
My Dad was 85. Apart from the people we knew he knew he must have known hundreds of others- He stopped to pick up hitchhikers. He helped people whose cars had broken down. He went off hang gliding Now lots of people know about him and unfortunately, they wouldn’t know if there hadn’t been a hurricane shaped coffin.
Death is not a very dignified event, I now know. We were celebrating our Daddy’s life!
Andy P (aged53)
my dad’s sister (70 something) called to say she was shocked by one of the newspaper articles, Why? Because she had no idea I was so old...
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