fifty-six years to make them

Question

Some people are playing Haiku chain online:

One person wrote:

Or, is that the way/ you plan to identify/ your mother’s remains.

The other replied with:

your mother's remains/ fifty-six years to make them/ now forty years on

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Does "fifty-six years to make them" mean "your mother was 56 years old (when she died)"? If so, what does "now forty years on" mean? Does it mean "40 years passed after she's dead"?

Answer 1

That sounds right. She died 40 years ago, aged 56. It's a neat play on mortality, as the only result of 56 years of life is a dead body.