I work in Houston picking up, transferring and aiding in the preparation of human remains. Why is it that people are like, "Oh my God, that's so gross!" but then they ask all kinds of morbid questions about what I do and what I've seen?

I don't get it.

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike." - Oscar Wilde

I think it's awesome. My ex bf's family owned a burial vault company, and similiar to their job, it's not like you are in fear of every being laid off..lol

People are just dying to give you busines..lol

do you ever, like do things to the bodies?

Hope you aren't a necrophiliac.

I am very particular about having respect for the remains. Besides, if you only knew what starts happening to a body once it dies on a cellular and bacterial level, you would see how that's really disgusting and dangerous.

Zorboo-

What do you mean by "do things?"

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike." - Oscar Wilde

[This message has been edited by CTZips03 (edited 9/19/2003 2:38p).]

Since you've brought it up...How can a dead body be dangerous?

Um, I was kidding.

Dead bodies can make all sorts of fun noises, right?

I saw my brother-in-law's body before he went in for the autopsy. I've been to funerals where the body had already been embalmed(sp?), but never a somewhat fresh dead body.

The bacteria hadn't set in yet when I saw him, but it was taking effect. I'll never forget the smell.

CTZ, I'm planning to go to Commonwealth next year to get my Funeral Director's license, so I can understand the reactions you get when you tell people what you do.

There's a cute mortician girl on Survivor. Check out the survivor link. The mortician is Darrah.

Do you poke the bodies with a pointy stick to make sure they're dead? I would have to change pants if one o' the deceased actually sat up or something...

CTZip

I get the same reaction when I tell people I worked in a Funeral Home in High School.

I asked one of our Morticians if he ever had a body sit up. He answered that he has had them twitch, or the eyes open but never sit up. "If I had, do you think I'd still be working here?"

A post so nice I sent it twice.

[This message has been edited by CBattBQ87 (edited 9/19/2003 4:21p).]

Mrs. L

You bet! We had one come in that had some crazy respiratory disease. It was one of only four known cases in the US. I had to put on masks, double gloves, etc. We also had to put a mask on the body so it wouldn't exhale anything onto us. I don't see why they didn't do direct cremation on that one.

Decomps can also be pretty dangerous because they are in an advances state of decomposition. Lots of nasty stuff to infect you in those cases.

We get a lot of inmates from Huntsville, which means they usually have everything you can imagine. They are still infectious until we embalm them. Even after that we are cautious.

We've gotten some pretty high-profile cases, too, like David Brinkley, Anna Nicole's husband, one of the Bonfire victims, the Enron guy who committed suicide, the guy whio fell off the Transco Tower and most recently the people who were killed in that head on collision when the guy was going the wrong way on 290. My friend Lisa embalmed Henry Lee Lucas. She was tempted to keep his glass eye, but left it in.

Purplehayes

Sometimes we'll take a live person and put them on a stretcher with a sheet wrapped around them and load them into the van for "delivery." When they get about a half mile down the road the sit up or make noise and scare the s*** out of whoever is driving.

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike." - Oscar Wilde

[This message has been edited by CTZips03 (edited 9/19/2003 4:57p).]

I worked in Resp Therapy for years before becoming a nurse and got a nasty staph infection from a deceased patient.As we moved him to the bin(stretcher that looks like it is empty but the body is below)his exhaled breath got all of us and two became ill.

People ask questions because everyone is curious but too afraid to ask an intelligent question so they make some "dying to work with you" comment.

I have never minded being around the deceased but I worked with one girl who would not go in the room because as her grandmother died she jerked and scared the crap out of the whole family.

Taking anything from a dead body is considered grave robbery. It is also very disrespectful, which, I am sure is the reason why your friend didn't steal it. I would seriously hurt someone if they played that trick on me, especially if I was driving down the freeway in Houston.

***************************************************

Former inmate in Galvatraz. If you know what it is, you know where it is.

You know how certain elevators at the hospital are marked STAFF ONLY really big? One day some lady decided she wanted to use the staff elevator instead of the visitor elevator. I think nothing of wheeling my stretcher onto the leevator. This lady starts freaking out and by teh time I got to the first floor she was curled up in a ball in the corner shaking. Maybe she'll learn what STAFF ONLY means.

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike." - Oscar Wilde

fido

Charles Whitman's tennis shoes were kept at the funeral home that embalmed him for many years (sort of a trophy I guess). A couple of years ago someone finally stole them from the funeral home.

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike." - Oscar Wilde

quote:

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Charles Whitman

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That must have been a messy undertaking.

not really, gunshot wounds are usually pretty clean unless they are close range to the head. Besides, he was autposied, which is generally messy to work with anyway.

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike." - Oscar Wilde

I don't know the condition of his body after the fire fight. He was brought down with 12 gauge buck shot at less than 20 ft.