By Mira Oberman
Lynn, Indiana - At 2,1m wide, it's certainly the biggest coffin the Goliath Casket Company had ever built.
And since Goliath is the oldest oversized coffin company in the United States, it's probably the widest casket made since the days when lumber companies were asked to knock together a big pine box.
The 2,1 casket was built for a 408kg man who died in Alaska. Most people who weigh that much can squeeze into Goliath's coffin, which is about as big as a double bed.
'It's really quite sad' But this man's legs would not close.
"It's really quite sad," said Goliath's owner, Keith Davis. "The body's been frozen and from what we can gather it's taken a while for them to get the funeral arranged."
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The expansion of American waistlines has forced American companies to make a number of adjustments. Airlines have increased their passenger weight estimates. Clothing stores are offering larger sizes. Furniture manufacturers are making wider chairs.
But nowhere are the consequences of the obesity epidemic more painfully obvious than in a converted hog barn on a country road in rural Indiana.
Davis' father founded the company 20 years ago because he wanted to offer the families of the obese a more dignified coffin than the slipshod special orders he saw being made by the casket company he worked for.
He altered the coffin's design so it would not look like a train car and reinforced its structure so it would not bend or buckle under the extra weight.
He built lids that could be propped open for full or half viewings and had foam inserts that made them easier to close. And he expanded the width from the standard 60cm.
"Eighty-three centimetres were our biggest back in '90. We thought that was pretty big," Davis said. "Then we started getting calls for bigger and bigger caskets so I went up to 1,2m.
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