if only. when my mother-in-law passed away, my stepfather-in-law was flabbergasted at cremation prices. geez. still needed to buy a coffin. dems da rules. fine...he goes flipping to the back of the book for the cheapest one. we loved her dearly (and miss the heck out of her still), but a bargain-shopper she was for her whole life. crikey....she would have come back from the dead and walloped us if we paid for a fancy coffin which was just going to burn. it’s a crock, anyway.
I read a story about someone that had died out of state. It was so expensive to ship the body home on an airline via the out of state funeral homes that the folks propped him up in the car and just drove him home for a funeral.
When my father died back in 1985 he was cremated. I think they had a provision for a rental coffin for the service. My dad in his best years had a terrific sense of humor, and didn’t mind occasionally offending others with it. He was probably looking down and getting great pleasure out of knowing his last home before that urn was a rented coffin!