For the sake of the Coronavirus rules, Knut Espelund’s family had to think anew to get as many people as possible into his funeral. He was put to rest with a drive-in.
When Reverend Runo Lilleaasen had undertaken the funeral he decided that during the throwing of the dirt and that the church bells rang at Øymark church at the municipality in Viken on Friday, he urged all 73 people to attend by staying in their cars in the parking lot for a common goodbye, according to Vårt Land.
– “Since we are all sitting in cars today, we end by giving a common horn signal – as a final farewell,” said the priest, before everyone honked at what was probably Norway’s first drive-in funeral.
“That sound he liked, it was a farewell that suited my father,” says his son Per Arne Espelund, who drove a hundred yards to the gravesite in his own 1953 model Opel Blitz truck.
According to the family, the sound of an engine and creativity were some of the characteristics of the deceased his entire life and thus suited the occasion well.
With the sound system and the podium at the parking lot at the church, there was singing and music. All cars in attendance were given a program, and the hymn song was sung from open car windows.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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