Wheel spins and the last laugh to Cocksy
Everyone’s favourite television handyman, John “Cocksy” Cocks, had one last laugh at his devoted wife’s expense yesterday.
Cocks had built his own coffin, but requested that his widow, Dana Coote, put the last nail in it.
The 52-year-old was farewelled on Monday after he died last Wednesday after an almost three-year battle with kidney cancer.
Friends and family gathered to celebrate his life and bid him farewell at the Tairua rugby clubrooms, on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.
Former Silver Fern April Ieremia, who co-starred with Cocks on the programme April’s Angels in the late 90s, was among the mourners.
Posting a picturesque photograph of the beach setting in Tairua to Facebook, she shared it alongside another photo of the order of service.
“Stunning day for Cocksy’s farewell,” she wrote. “Excellent service and so many funny stories. It was shorts and jandals all the way. [Rest in love].”
Other friends at the TV star’s funeral were broadcaster Jason Gunn and TVNZ newsreader Simon Dallow, who officiated the service.
Dallow told the Herald Cocksy had left specific instructions for his final farewell.
“It was not a funeral by any stretch of the imagination. The coffin was made by his mates and, instead of a hearse, he was in his beloved Holden. “He had a beer for everyone on arrival — it was his last shout. That’s what he wanted it called,” he said. Cocksy had even organised a rugby theme for his service, which was run in two halves.
“The first half was his family memories. His mother and his daughters and his wife all spoke beautifully and provided the context of the life lesser known, perhaps,” Dallow said. The second half included a refreshment break before friends from different times of his life were called on to pay tribute to their mate.
The stories included some from his rugbyplaying days, his upbringing in Paeroa, as a young man living in Thames, and his days at the Variety Bash, Dallow said.
“It was funny, it was humorous and it was still poignant. There was a lot of love.”
The last thing on Cocksy’s list came as a surprise to everyone, Dallow said. He was strapped tightly in the back of his Holden and the vehicle suddenly did several reverse donut spins on the rugby field behind those gathered.
“It was his parting gesture.” Cocks is survived by wife Dana and three daughters, Sophie, Ella and Georgia.