Some years ago, I knew this guy who worked in a funeral home, so I would visit him there because he was a workaholic and didn’t have much off time. And, naturally I would see him working. To be frank, I only visited him there three times. In each case there were dearly departed on display. The first time there was an elderly woman, lying in a casket. I was impressed by her appearance because she appeared as if she were just sleeping!!! But she was so still and that made it all the more eerie. And my visit became too long after about a minute so I said goodbye.
Another time I walked in to find my friend primping the body of a young man lying in a casket and he too appeared so lifelike and in quiet repose. What most impressed me was how young the departed young man appeared! To think that such a man should be in some office directing the inner workings of a big company. All of this death impressed me more than I care to admit. And these dearly departed, people were complete and total strangers to me. I did not feel anything about their state, and I only marveled at how fleeting life can be. Here we are one day, and gone the next!
I was contemplating getting a foot in the funeral business so my friend, the mortician, offered to give me a tour of the backroom. He chose to introduce me to the details on a slow hour of the funeral home. The time was around midnight and the weather was cold and wet. These conditions were ripe for a lourid ghost story and there I was about to be immersed into the inner sanctum of a funeral home. My friend met me at the service entrance wearing a white lab gown. He looked like he was about to perform major surgery. The fact of the matter was that he was about to perform a major embalming procedure on a cadaver.
I was nervous, and uncomfortable being there in that situation but I braved it out just to see how much I could stand. And once inside the embalming room I was really in shock. There before mine eyes was a real cadaver present and not in a casket. A white sheet covered the cadaver and that was very fortunate for me otherwise I might have fainted right away. At any rate, my friend was very patient and he gave me the tour of the place. He described the materials that he used in the course of his work.
Right away once in the room I noticed a strong odor and it was not coming from the cadaver. No, the strong odor came from the chemicals used in the embalming process according to my guide. And just relating all of this now gives me a sinking feeling in my gut. As I said the cadaver was lying in a shallow basin-like table of stainless steel. The top of the head was exposed so I could see that it was the body of a gray haired and bald man. My guide had previously told me that he was working on a male cadaver. And just beside the head I noticed an extra pair of sterile rubber gloves. Oh, no, were they there for me? Was my friend hoping that I would assist him in the procedure? My stomach is now feeling queasy thinking about all of this now. I asked about the purpose for the extra gloves some days later and my friend said that they were placed there for use by him.
I remained in the funeral home just a short time but to me it seemed like an eternity. And the odors of the place just would not quit. I thanked my host for his patience and his candor in everything that he explained about his job. Then I made a hasty departure. Clearly I disappointed my friend for my lack of fortitude and wanting to leave the place.
Still there is something about caskets and the whole funeral business that calls my attention and interest. I have looked into the matter in some detail. All of these details are truly not meant for all to know. And as I’ve said, thinking about it now makes me feel uneasy, so those people of sensitive constitutions should not even be confronted by such lurid descriptions. And that was my third visit to a funeral home. I have not visited another such place since. Whether for the funerals of family or friends I have always chosen to remain outside the doors of funeral homes. Such thinking cannot be the perfect basis for a career in undertaking.
There are details that I have not touched on here such as the dim light of a funeral home and the very cold temperatures there. My friend had a pallor about his appearance. I don’t know if it was a result of his natural complexion or perhaps a result of being locked away in a dark funeral home. And it could even be that he was not really there. I mean to say that he could have been a cadaver himself. What am I saying? I only know that when such subjects cross the mind of a man with a vivid imagination such wild ideas pop into the head.
I have not heard nor spoken to that young man in a good many years, as we had a bit of a falling out soon after my third visit to his place of work. And I don’t know whatever became of him. Oh, I suspect that after all these years he is now running his own funeral business.