4 posts tagged “funeral director”
And it was vile.
I will not bore you with a blow-by-blow account of my entire days events however something new cropped up today. I used a trocar. A trocar is a hollow, sharp pointed instrument designed to puncture a body cavity for fluid aspiration. It is about 60cm long and is part of the embalming process. A hose is attached to the end and the fluids are drained away. After you perforate the body at a point near the belly button you shove this evil looking implement into various parts of the body and drain whatever you can find. In the first body I did today, the person was obviously a heavy smoker because the black tar like substance that drained from his lungs was nothing short of putrid. The body had started to 'go off' even before the person was transferred to the mortuary and there is nothing that can disguise the smell of death. Even with the extractor fans running and the wearing of face masks, the smell is unascapable. It was unlike anything that I had ever smelt before in my life. I spent about twenty minutes extracting fluids of different colours from this person's chest. Once done I proceeded to fill the body cavity with a type of embalming fluid with the trocar. I repeated this procedure all over again on a second body. This time the person had no smell.
I also went on my own today using the transfer wagon to pick up death certificates later on in the day. I appreciate the trust that my employer has in me to be allowed to use the company cars. The rest of the day was spent preparing coffins.
Well I have finished my first week as a funeral director. I am enjoying myself. I haven't had any transfers over the weekend as yet. My colleagues are fantastic to work with and are treating me with respect and not as 'outsider'. I even like my boss lol. One of my workmates even shouted me a pastry while another bought me a drink for afternoon smoko! For the first time in quite a while I am actually looking forward to going to work.
Last week I assisted at preparing bodies and coffins. The former involves cleaning the skin, cleaning the hair and some basic face work. Sometimes the eyes become sunken after death. To alleviate this we use an epoxy like liquid. Using a syringe we draw a small amount from two different bottles. We then slip the needle of the syringe above and below the eye. This 'Part A' and 'Part B' process forms a soft compound that plumps up the surrounding tissue and alleviates the sunken look. It also by nature eradicates some wrinkles and gives the deceased a more youthful look. The downside to using this product is the area around where it was injected goes white. This can be disguised later. The hair is washed with a product that smells like thinners. Once the body is washed the jaw is then sutured. This is a little disturbing. The suture goes up through the nasal cavity and back down again, through the soft tissue near the jaw and is tied off. This keeps the mouth closed. If the mouth still doesn't want to shut, there is another, more brutal method of suturing the jaw. Suturing happens with every body. The sutures are hidden and can not be seen. The body is then dressed with clothes provided - usually by the family. Makeup is then applied. Male bodies only get a light application. The body is ready to be transferred to the coffin.
The coffin chosen is dictated by the person's pre-need/pre-paid plan or by the family if a plan doesn't exist. Before a body is placed into a coffin it needs to have certain items attached to it. The coffins usually arrive bare from the manufacturer. They are not lined nor do they have any handles, blank name plates or have any other ornaments attached so we have to attach them as required. We attach the handles that have already been chosen and they are usually made of plastic. These handles do not need to be removed if the body is to be cremated. Metal handles do need to be removed. The next stage it to engrave the name plate. These come in different designs but are also usually chrome plated plastic. The plate is placed into a machine and is held by a vice mechanism. We then get individual brass letters and lay them out to spell the person's name in a second vice. Everything has the be centred. Using a scribe we trace the letters. A second scribe attached to the same arm as the first scribe (it's hard to explain) engraves the name onto the plate. You have to be careful not to slip otherwise the slip will appear as a scratch on the name plate. It's a bit like an etch-a-sketch. I was very pleased with my first effort and so were my colleagues. The plate is centred on the coffin and nailed into place on the coffin lid.
Diamond plate is tacked onto the corners of the lid where the shoulders are and escutcheons placed where the thumb screws go. We then drill the holes for the screws.
The body can now be lifted into the coffin using a winch combined with straps. Before this happens a pillow needs to be made at one end using shredded paper and the entire coffin is to be lined with plastic sheeting. This a requirement by law (the plastic not the paper). The body can now go in. A silk breast cloth and then placed over the body. It covers everything up to the neckline. The edges are attached to the interior of the coffin along the edge. More linings are then attached around the edge and it ends up looking quite elaborate and frilly. Once all that is done the lid can go on. We screw it down with ornate thumb screws and it is ready for the funeral. If desired, a cross or other religious emblem can also be attached to the lid.
Then we do it all over again if there is another body ready to go. I helped prepare the body of the young woman who died (mentioned in my last blog). She was so beautiful. It was sad to see someone so young in our mortuary. We only did a small amount of work to her due to the family's wishes.
So this is what I do. When people find out what I am now doing they respond in one of two ways:
1). They respond with intense interest and are very curious as to what I will actually be doing, or
2). They do not know how to respond at all. My auntie was initially one of these people.
I look forward to my newly found future.
Well today was my first official day as a funeral director. I started the day visiting the Cheltenham cemetery. There is a particular way to drive a hearse in to this cemetery and depending on which of the four driveways that you use, there is a particular way to exit as well. The council that is controlling this cemetery is participating in the destruction of Adelaide's history. In the oldest part of the cemetery there are graves that date back to late nineteenth century. They are digging these graves up and preparing them for new ones. The headstones and any concreting are removed and then destroyed. The unfortunate bodies in these graves are removed and then buried deeper. It is nothing sort of sacrilege. If these were war graves that were being dug up, the councillors in control would be lynched. The people in the graves are just as deserving of respect as those who fought in wars.
Our next port of call was one of the funeral homes that the company that I work for owns. I met the people that work there. They were very friendly and happy to see me. I will stationed there this coming Thursday. From there we moved on to Enfield Memorial Park.
I was shown the various sections of the cemetery and then we moved on to the crematorium which I found to be a fascinating place. The crematorium is basically two huge, computer controlled gas fired ovens. There was a small queue of coffins (with bodies inside) waiting to be placed inside. I was lucky enough to arrive at the time they were just about to put a coffin into the crematorium. All large metal objects need to be removed such as handles and the nameplate on top of the coffin, plus anything with a battery (pacemaker, defribilator etc) need to be removed. The coffin is placed on special motorised gurney. The gurney is then moved and then locked into place at the front door of the crematorium. At the flick of a button the door opens and the coffin is very quickly (literally within a second) rolled into place. The door closes. All this is automated. The coffin is then subjected to fire and heat in excess of 865 degrees celcius (1589 degrees fahrenheit). An average sized person will be burnt up within one hour. At the back of the crematorium is a little window to see the coffin if you so wish. The one coffin I had just witnessed enter was just a wall of flame, however in the one next door you could clearly see the remains of a spinal column and part of a skull. This did not disturb me however if it was your loved one it may be too much to witness. Once the process is complete the door on the otherside opens and a worker scrapes out the remains into a cooling bucket. Once cooled the remains are transferred into a plastic urn to be returned to family.
We then visited the administration area of the complex and then the funeral directors lounge. My boss then showed me one of the chapels. If you have been to a funeral you would know that the coffin usually sits on a decorated platform that symbolically lowers as the funeral concludes. I learnt that this platform is actually called 'catafalque'. You learn something everyday don't you? From there we moved onto Adelaide's largest cemetery complex - Centennial Park.
Centennial Park is very large and quite picturesque. Many of my own relatives can be found in this cemetery including my grandfather and grandmother. Like Cheltenham, Centennial Park also particpates in reusing graves after a certain time although it is no way near as obvious as Cheltenham. The boss showed me around the office areas, the funeral directors lounge, funeral directors pigeon holes, the three chapels, as well the underground areas. Unlike Enfield Memorial Park, when the coffin is lowered on the catafalque, it actually descends into the underground area to be picked up by a hearse. The hearse then travels to either the graveside service or to the crematorium (Centennial Park has five of them).
We then left Centennial Park and went to the engravers to pick up my new name badge. It looks very official and my name is actually spelt correctly! Bonus.
We drove back to the funeral home where I started my day to have lunch.
After lunch we drove to arrange a funeral for a family who had just lost their daughter. She was only 24. I didn't realise this until earlier this evening. There was a notice in the paper placed by the family.
When we finished up we drove back to the funeral home. On the way we got a call that a person in a nursing home had passed away. My boss arranged one of the other staff that I had met earlier in the day to come and pick me up. He arrived twenty minutes later and so I was off to do another transfer. When we arrived at the nursing home the deceased had been placed into a small holding room waiting for our arrival. She looked like she was sleeping. Rigor mortis had not begin to set in so she had only just died. Just like what I did on Saturday (and Sunday), we tranferred her to the body bag on top of the berouche. It was at this time my partner and I both could smell the unmistakable stench of the body purging. It wasn't overpowering but the smell was there. We placed her into back of the tranfer wagon and set off for home base.
This was essentially the end of my working day. On Thursday I will be stationed at another funeral home, which is only minutes away from where I live. I can get up a bit later on that morning. Yay. I will also be helping out in the funeral of the young lady who I mentioned previously.
For those of you who regularly read this blog, you would know that I have very recently become a funeral director. I officially start next Tuesday however I am on call over this weekend to help with body transfers should the need arise. At 2:30pm today it did.
I was up to my elbows in mineral turpentine, oil and grease (don't ask) when the call came through. I hurriedly showered and put on my suit with the tie causing me no end of trouble. I quickly gave up and and put on one that I had already pre-tied. I jumped in my car and drove to the particular funeral home branch that was handling the deceased, which happens to be a forty five minute drive away from where I live.
Once I got there my colleague who I was meeting there had already prepped the 'transfer wagon'. She gave me a quick tour around the mortuary before instructing me on funeral director protocol. We left for the nursing home where the person had died.
Once we arrived at the aged care facility, we were quickly instructed by one of the nurses where the person was located. She was in a shared room. Her room mate seemed blissfully unaware that there was a deceased person, whose privacy was protected only by a curtain, was lying only meters away from where she was sitting. She was gently ushered into another room by a nurse while we did our work.
We drew back the curtain and there in front of us, quite obviously dead, was the frail figure of a unusually tall lady who would have been perhaps in in mid eighties. She had a yellow complexion and her eyes were still open.
My partner and I checked her for valuables such as jewellery (to be returned to the next of kin) and the such, found none however we made sure that her dentures were safely stored. We drew a sheet over her. My partner tucked the sheet in one side of her body and when she finished I rolled the body on her side and did the same on my side. Once we had done that we retrieved the patient transfer board from our gurney (called a barouche). We carefully lifted her onto the board and the board into the body bag that was on the barouche. We strapped her in tightly. From there we weeled her out to the wagon.
My partner informed me that when driving with a body on board, you have to take the corners slowly otherwise the barouche (with the body) may topple over, and that will cause a world of trouble for everyone involved. On the way home the deceased started to expell gas that was building up in her stomach. It wasn't pleasant. Luckily the trip back to the mortuary wasn't long.
When we got there we quickly removed the body from the back of the wagon and transferred her to another type of board. We applied special cream to her face and especially to her eyes. This prevents the skin from dehydrating and therefore helps when preparing the body for the funeral. When we finished that we put her into the fridge. We wiped down the equipment and changed any linen that we used. My job was done.
While this person was quite simple to do, I am under no illusions that they will all be like that. There will be times when a person of ample carriage passes away and that will make life just that bit more difficult for us. There will be times when the person has purged or defecated themselves upon death. However being a funeral director is something I do think that I will be good at. If anyone is interested I will update you on how I go. Bare in mind that I have signed a confidentiality agreement with my employer so at no time can I discuss names, prices, trading practices etc.
