In Haiti, festive wakes and Voodoo undertakers help mourners say their last goodbyes

Sisters Fredeline Alfred and Carine Alfred are shown the lights for the airplane-shaped coffin chosen for their recently deceased mother, Anaira Jules, at a morgue in Saint-Marc, Haiti, April 17, 2021. Jules who lived her whole life in a small hamlet in rural Haiti,?had never set foot on a plane. But for her last journey, she was sent off in a gleaming white, plane-shaped coffin complete with a wing-tail and illuminated portholes. "Ever since I was little, my mother would tell me it was important for her that her funeral go well," said Jules' youngest daughter, Fredeline. REUTERS/Valerie Baeriswyl

GRAND-BERA, Haiti (Reuters) - Anaira Jules, who lived her whole life in a small hamlet in rural Haiti, had never set foot on a plane. But for her last journey, she was sent off in a gleaming white, plane-shaped coffin complete with a wing-tail and illuminated portholes.

Mourners fell into trance-like states or wept at the church funeral service for the 77-year old in Grand-Bera, in Haiti's central department of Artibonite. A marching brass band afterwards accompanied the large procession that carried the plane-coffin to the cemetery.