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| Dept. of Health & Social Services |
WARNING: This blog entry describes some of the procedures that I had to perform and also witness; one of them involves an infant -- I shall warn you once more before I describe it; until then carry on reading... if you dare! Also I apologize because this entry will be very long.
Last night I had to close at my retail job so I was unable to get home until around 11 pm, on top of that I didn't really settle down and fall asleep until somewhere after midnight. I am the kind of person who thoroughly enjoys her sleep, so getting less than 8 hours is less than ideal...6:30 am came around too fast.
I had to be at The Home by 8:30 this morning but also wanted to take a shower to really start my day off fresh. I packed a lunch and dinner along with some snacks and set off to The Home. Once I got there I met up with my licensed funeral director partner Dani*; in order for an apprentice to do any work they need to have their permit and always be supervised by a licensed funeral director. I will pretty much always be working on Dani's weekend, which is great because I really enjoy working with her. Along with being partnered with Dani, I was also teamed up with Kevin, who will be my on-call buddy. Basically whenever Kevin and I are on call, if we receive a call to go do a pick up, we will do it together.
So after arriving at The Home I got a tour of the facilities yet again, and got to formally introduce myself to the rest of the staff. Since we had two funerals this night two of the directors were in the preparation room putting finishing touches on the body. David, of the directors, was filling out the face of a Mr. G who was to have his visitation and funeral mass later that night; something I would later find out was a bit unusual.
The following paragraph describes a cosmetic procedure:
I asked David what he was doing as he took out a fairly large syringe and filled it with a pink liquid, and he said he was going to plump out the cheeks on Mr. G to round out his face; once the liquid was inserted under the skin it would then solidify much like a gel. Other than that, Mr. G was in his navy blue suite and his make up was done.
While David was working on Mr. G, Michelle, another licensed funeral director had the task of clothing Mrs. Smith. Now Mrs. Smith was a direct cremation, meaning there was going to be no embalming, no visitation, really no funeral service; however we still had to clothe Mrs. Smith.
9 out of 10 times when families give us clothing....it doesn't fit, and for Mrs. Smith that was no exception. We had to wiggle her underwear on, cut her sports bra in half along with her shirt and slice up her pants. Granted the clothing was not like a well tailored suit that Mr. G was wearing. The shirt was a basic black one and the jeans were denim. Even though Mrs. Smith was a direct cremation we still had to clothe her, something about giving her some dignity because the dead would become embarrassed if they knew their own dead nakedness...(I'm only partially joking here).
While I was witnessing all of this going on in the preparation room, Jim, one of the owners of The Home, came in and told us that there was a body pick up needed at one of the hospice home care centers I eagerly volunteered for the opportunity. Dani and I were sent, and as we gathered our supplies (pad-folio full of important documents and a gurney with a body bag, blanket, gloves and ID tags) Dani went over the procedure of what we would be doing at the clinic.
When picking up a body you always take the van and for a lot of funeral homes these days they are a slightly modified mini-van; ours happens to be a beautiful midnight blue Dodge. We placed the gurney in the back and proceeded onto the center. On the way there Dani went over basic protocol when dealing with a pick up: Always arrive near the back door; make sure you have your paper work and get it signed by the right people; when talking to the families be sure to ask if they have a plot and if so where (and if it's been paid off!) ask if they want a cremation or burial, ask if there is a church that they want you to contact and if the person was a veteran be sure to get the proper discharge papers in order to have the proper graveside ceremony.
When we arrived, we pulled alongside the back door and tried to as quietly as possibly, retrieve the gurney from the back and wheel it to the correct room. I must confess, I was not nervous, I was giddy with excitement! I had to actually keep myself from giggling because I was just so excited to be actively participating in a body removal!
Once we arrived at the room we met the deceased's son and his wife. Dani proceeded to go over the information that she went over with me in the car and then we gave them a moment alone with their dearly departed before we hoisted Mr. H onto the gurney and gently wrapped him up like a big death burrito.
Apparently at this particular hospice home, when somebody passes they place a quilt over the body and they ring a bell. So as we traversed the hallways trying to get back to our little death-mobile, at each nurses station, someone rang a little bell. It was...a bit creepy to be honest, but tradition is tradition...even if it's a weird one.
Typically when removing a body we take them back to the main chapel; however, since Mr. H had suffered a fractured hip a few days ago, we now had to take him to the medical examiners office to be looked over and examined.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiners office is in the pit that is Downtown Milwaukee by the county courthouse. We arrived and unloaded Mr. H and waited to be let in through the locked glass doors. This is where it happened. This is where I truly smelled death for the first time. For those of you who have smelled death you know what I mean here. For those of you who have not, be grateful. And no, going to a funeral does not count as 'smelling death'. Those bodies are treated with chemicals and flower arrangements strategically placed. The medical examiners office is a place where people who are murdered, commit suicide, die of unnatural causes; the list goes on, go and basically rot until someone (a funeral director) goes to pick them up. Yes the bodies are placed in refrigeration, and yes they are kept under lock and key, but still bodies going in that have not been found for a few days, permeate the rotting flesh smell that smells indescribable yet sweet. A lot like rotting garbage that has been out in the sun for too long.
So I got to meet Andrew the Medical Examiner, and see him go to town examining Mr. H's body. That included unwrapping our death burrito and Andrew taking measurements of his height and a few fluid samples.
The following paragraph describes the method of taking a fluid sample:
Andrew grabbed a syringe and proceeded to open up one of Mr. H's eyes and insert the needle into his eye and draw out a clear fluid that would later be used for various testing methods; methods that at this point, I'm not very sure of. I asked if this eye fluid tells the same as blood, and he said yes, but since Mr. H, was so emancipated, a blood sample was very difficult to obtain.
After Andrew was done we re-wrapped Mr. H and loaded him back into the van. Driving off, Dani mentioned that we must always be aware of what we say, especially in places like the Medical Examiners' office, word travels fast, and the M.E. is a hub for morticians picking up bodies -- it's also where there is apparently a lot of juicy gossip.
When we arrived back at The Home, I unloaded Mr. H and brought him to the preparation room. Even though he was to be a direct cremated we still needed to do some, what they call 'alternative care'. So I donned the blue suite which is a blue medical jacket, blue latex free gloves, a plastic apron, and a face mask. Once ready we were able to begin the 'alternative care'. What this boils down to is shaving the face if there is stubble, washing and decontaminating the body, and washing the hair....yes I got to give a dead man a scalp massage as I washed his thinning hair.
Once we finished, Michelle needed some assistance determining what to do with her other case.
The following paragraph describes a still-born infant:
Michelle's other case was a still born baby. Now I have never really seen a dead baby before, let alone a still born, but seeing this child was pretty disturbing. Mainly because of how it looked. I would say that it was pretty well developed, but very small. Because it was still born, the body was basically decomposing before our very eyes. The tiny body was very red, almost like it had a bad sun burn and the skin was peeling. The head was also caved in slightly due to, what I can only assume is because it was not truly fully developed. The consult that Michelle needed was should she wait to clothe the child because of how badly it was decomp-ing or do it now and hope for the best, she was worried that the decomp would stain the garment that the infant would be wearing. I believe Dani said that she could wait, I honestly do not remember, I was too busy staring at the incredibly tiny coffin on the table, waiting for its' incredibly tiny human.
My mom said that it would be hard dealing with my first child...but honestly it wasn't. This was mainly due to the fact that it was a still born, the poor soul wasn't assigned a social security number and never really lived so to me, it was just another body, just very very tiny. Perhaps if the child had been a toddler it would have invoked more of a response from me, but at this point in time I was unfazed by it.
After we were done prepping the bodies that needed to be worked on we took a quick lunch break, and once lunch was over I had to help Michelle load in a Mrs. Jones into the van to take her over to the South Chapel because her visit was to be held later that night in a city 30 minutes away. This is the part where I got the drive the company van. And it. was. AWESOME! Once we were done unloading everything at the South Chapel Michelle and I went back to The Home to load up the van again for the funeral that we would be setting up for.
I had to load up the flower stands, table clothes, two tables, and various other props that we would need at the visitation and mass. We arrived at the church, which is were Jim's brother who is also a funeral director and part owner of The Home, Jack attends.
Did I mention that this Catholic church is also a school? And that school was just being released as the hearse pulled up...yeah so much for keeping death discrete. So we unload Mr. G and set everything up, and of course right before we are about to open the casket the family shows up. Now when we transport the body for viewing we make sure we lay facial tissue over any exposed skin, this helps protect the inner casket lining from getting make-up on it. Michelle asked me to stand right next to her as we opened up the casket, and while Jack went to go distract the family by talking to them.
Once everything was arranged and ready for viewing we ushered the immediate family in. I gotta say, even though Mr. G had been 88 when he died, it was still heart breaking to hear the sobs of his wife; who he had been married to for over 65 years, and daughter who had to be in her late 50's. After seeing Mr. G's memorial table I saw that he was a WWII veteran who received the Purple Heart along with other various medals of honor. It made me wish that I could have heard some of his war stories, or to just thank him for serving our country.
Immediately following the visitation was the mass, and as I had mentioned earlier this was a bit unusual, especially since the graveside committal wasn't until tomorrow. Once we started getting the casket ready for moving the mother and daughter just started sobbing all over again. I wanted so badly to just reach out and hug them both, let them know that their dearly departed was truly in a better place with God and that he was a great man. Of course I did not do either of these things, instead I said a silent prayer for their family, asking God to give them strength and courage as they embark on this new journey without the patriarch of their family.
One thing I learned was that a Catholic funeral mass takes up to a hour to complete. During this hour the funeral directors cleaned up the visitation area and reset the furneture. Jack later came up to me and asked how my first day was going, I said that it was long but I was learning a lot. He laughed and quietly said that, "You are getting the worst part of your career out of the way during the youngest part of your life." And he is right. Being an apprentice will be one of the most difficult things that I will probably ever do in my career. There will be days that I will go home totally defeated and burned out, but the sliver of hope that I cling to is knowing that it will not always be this way.
After the mass, Dani and I packed up and sent everything over to the South Chapel, once we were done there we were blissfully on our way back to The Home to drop off the van and then on our way home.
I worked 11 hours today, plus any time that I might spend responding to a pick up tonight since I am on call.
Here is a quick recap of what I learned today:
1) Never cross the legs when you're picking up a body, it's bad ju-ju
2) Keep your hands out of your pockets, it makes you look bored
3) Keep a black pen on you
4) Always read the white board in the prep room (it tells us how is on deck for the day)
5) When in doubt keep your mouth shut and smile
6) Morticians feed on gossip, so be careful
7) When blogging about this stuff, never divulge any personal information, which is why I have changed the names of everyone and will never specifically name what funeral home or retail store I work at.
Over all today was exciting and amazing and a mixture of a lot of other things. I can't wait to go back in again tomorrow, and thankfully since there are no visitations tomorrow I will be done for sure by 4:30 pm.
Now if only I could get some sleep....
Until next time.
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