Fredriks grandfather, who' s name is Gunnar, followed his father's business with the age of 36, that was in 1957.
His family were undertakers for generations. Gunnar has been driving hearses for more than 50 years, and he still continues driving his FORD Taunus 1964 privately.
Fredrik was kind enough to send me pictures and information on his family's business, this way I did get a perspective of the Norwegian funeral habits.

In the old days people either carried the coffins or did follow the slow trail with the coffin on a horse-drawn sledge or trolly.

Gunnar`s father used horses until 1927, when he decided to buy his first car, a FORD-T 1927 model. This car was used as a truck to move tombstones on the churchyard, but was not in use as a hearse. The little boy on the photo is Gunnar himself.

The first hearse Gunnar`s family operated, was the first hearse in the whole of western Norway (Vestlandet).
The chassis was a DODGE Brothers 1931 with four cylinders including hydraulic brakes on all four wheels, something rare at the time.
The remarkably beautiful car body was built locally by the Eltervåg workshop in Stavanger. A local woodcarver made the ornaments on the car, an astonishing piece of work.
The costs of the chassis amounted to 6000 Norwegian Kroner, the body of the car to 3000 Kroner, a lot of money in those days, well worth the sum if one looks at the jewel!

Gunnar`s brother was the first to drive their first hearse since Gunnar wasn't old enough to drive a car at the time. Gunnar`s brother is still a wild Norwegian warrior and is soon to celebrate his 95th birthday!
Unfortunately the Dodge was not very much in use; people preferred the horse drawn wagon because they were used to walk behind the coffin in silence.
This first hearse remained within the family until 1964 when it was given away due to lack of space - what a loss!

The first FORD Taunus Transit 1958, Gunnar bought, was a 1250 kg model.
It was ordered from FORD in Köln, Germany. It came without side doors, Gunnar himself made the windows and the interior of this car. He had worked in a car-workshop in his younger days, that turned out to help him a lot later on.

The next car on the list was also a FORD Taunus Transit, this time a 1964, model FK 1000.
It came black from the factory, it is this car that Gunnar still owns and uses on some occasions.
Both FORD Taunus had 4 cylinders with 60 hp engines. These cars were not easy to use on Norwegian winter roads.

Later on there was another FORD Taunus, but this time a station wagon, changed to a hearse:

Better adapted to Scandinavian circumstances was the next car, a VOLVO 1974 that was built as a hearse in Sweden.
The Volvo is now in Bosnia, it was a donation to this war-torn part of the former Yugoslavia some years back.

The next cars that followed were all PEUGEOTS.
The first was a 1974 model, the next one a 1976, after that he had a P-505 in 1984, then a 1987
model. Altogether he has had 7 different Peugeots to this day, one of them is still in use as a private car today.

he Peugeots were the only european station wagons to fit a coffin into.
They were bought as station wagon including seats; Gunnar himself removed the seats in replacing them with a proper interior that he built himself to make sure the cars were going to be approved as hearses by the authorities.
After using a Peugeot for 3 years as a hearse, he put the seats back into the car, and so he had a personal vehicle he didn't have to pay taxes on.
This rather clever way of obtaining cheap personal vehicles was applied to all Peugeots.
The Peugeot had great driving abilities in summer as well as in the freezing winter.
Gunnar also used these cars both in Denmark and Sweden in his years as a hearse driver.

Last, but not least he had a rather funny war-story for me:
When the Germans occupied Norway in 1940 they took all trucks, but forgot about the hearses.
However, in 1942 the Germans wanted to take the Dodge; Gunnar was told to show up with the car at the German headquarter in the center of Stavanger.
But when the German officer in charge saw what kind of a car Gunnar was driving into the headquarter, he chased Gunnar away yelling "Raus! Raus! Verdammte Norweger!". The Germans did not expect Gunnar to show up driving a hearse! People who gathered around the headquarter in Stavanger even thought the commander had died because of Gunnar`s car!

Gunnar is celebrating his 80th birthday this year, and he still is a tough guy as we can see on the picture. Must come from the fresh breeze in Stavanger - or from his business as a hearsedriver, who knows.
They offered me to stay at their house during my next trip to Norway - I just can't wait to meet Fredrik and Gunnar and hear those stories about the Norwegian undertakers and take a ride with our cars!