I have never seen a dead person in my life. Never been to a funeral, witness a bad accident, or seen anybody been carted away in the death wagon at an assistant living place (I go to quite a few of them for my job).

Other than maybe seeing something on tv and pictures in magazine, I haven't seen a dead person in reality.

I hadn't until last week. I started delivering flowers about a month ago and last week I had to deliver a casket piece to a funeral home. Usually, they take the flowers for me, but this time I had to go place it myself, and it was an open casket. I've seen my fair share of gory tv shows and movies, as well as actual crime scene photos, graphic war photos, and those movies they show you before you get your drivers license. They don't bother me, so I figured, no biggie. I dunno man, standing there with a dead guy right next to you, its not the same as seeing it on the screen. Gave me the willies for about an hour.

Yeah.

I've seen my father and grandfather, both before the funeral home came to take them. If it seems I've become sad or cynical in the last couple years, this is one reason why.

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE !!!! Sorry, you set yourself up for that one.

Yes, my best friend 7 years ago.

And once I passed by a guy I'm pretty sure was dead on the side of the road after a car accident.

If you never have, consider yourself extremely lucky.

-Amber

I don't know if its me or them.
I was on a military flight that had some dead civilians in the back and not enough seats to go around. It was cold and the floor was bare aluminum diamond plate. So I sat on a pair of stacked bodies.
I mean they were DEAD, what do they care, geez, some of the looks one guy gave me.
Not trying to be wise guy, at the time I did not consider bodies as dead people, just bodies. It has been some time ago so maybe now that I am looking at my own mortality up close and personal, my actions may not be as callous.

But back to topic, yes I have seen dead people.

I lived in Colombia for 6 years and I saw plenty of dead people....

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Yes, too many, too many of them relatives--consider yourself fortunate.

I worked in a nursing home for 7 months. I don't know if I got lucky or what, but in all that time I only had to deal with one corpse. There were several deaths in the place while I was there--it's a nursing home, you can't avoid it. Let me see--there were at least nine deaths in the wards I worked while I was there, but only one of them died during my shift. (No, I had nothing to do with their deaths, for crying out loud!!!)

The one corpse I had to deal with died right at dinnertime. I got called to the ward from the dining room to help out with cleaning the body. The man's family was present when he died, so they were able to say goodbye to him before he passed; then me and my partner had to go into the room and get him ready for the undertakers. That was probably the least pleasant task that I had to handle while I worked there...but in some ways it was also kind of an honor. I probably won't forget it for a LONG time, that's for sure.

Ed

I worked in the kitchen of an old folks' home when I was a teenager.

They brought the dead down by the freight elevator (which was primarily used by the kitchen for food service). But the bodies were generally bagged and covered.

I've been to numerous family funerals, most recently my father's.

Seeing the dead and dying gives you some valuable perspective on life.

So many that its just a host of a lost soul... I couldn't begin to count how many, hell maybe more then most in battle service men! Why you ask? so many before 30?
Well for starters, I went to college for a medical career that had me sitting in a Cadaver Lab with 40 bodies in varous stages of disection. And I got to be one of the Lucky(eh?) few that has ever been allowed into the storage room!! Yeah were talkin bodys laid out on tables awaiting their turn in the lab, very fresh ones hanging from hooks in bags drying out. And bins of more body parts then a auto part store! Then there were the ones ready to go into the cremator. Cool lil factoid, All parts are keep with their bodys, So your not being cremated with someone elses brain or leg or well yeah. So all in all over that period of time I most likly saw around 200+ bodys

Then theres deths close to me. Mom at 13, all grandparents but one thats currently 97!, most of my aunts and uncles (moms side go figure), and in the 10 yrs Ive been gradumukated frum highskool Ive lost over 25 friends and the only one that didnt have a open casket wake was my closest bud that passed away on christmas eve and he donated organs so he was cremated (freakin weird looking at your old drinking buddy in a cigar box!!)

Ohh and I can't forget.. the skeleton, well almost fully decomposed body I found out in the woods as a kid. NO It wasnt Hoffa!!! Just some bum that wandered off and died. I'm sure there others, But I've forgotten them over time. They start to overlap. I'm sure I'll be seeing plenty more thoughout my lifetime.. and then I'll get to see the coolest dead body of them all !!!! MINE !!!! Schweeeeeet

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[This message has been edited by DjDraggin (edited 02-12-2006).]

quote Originally posted by Wichita: I have never seen a dead person in my life. Never been to a funeral, witness a bad accident, or seen anybody been carted away in the death wagon at an assistant living place (I go to quite a few of them for my job). Other than maybe seeing something on tv and pictures in magazine, I haven't seen a dead person in reality.

Consider yourself lucky, it changes you.
Brad

Yes, most of them are from the neck up
My grandfather was a caretaker at a grave yard. He showed me my first dead person. The person didnt look real, it was a long time ago and they didnt know how or didnt care to make them look good.

I have lost a lot of people in my life and unless its going to hurt someone I dont go see them after they are gone. I would rather remember them the way they were.

I was also first person at a pretty bad wreck and looked into the face of a dead person, its not something you ever want to do. I still think about it sometimes and its been 20 years.

Often.

quote Originally posted by Wichita: I have never seen a dead person in my life. Never been to a funeral, witness a bad accident, or seen anybody been carted away in the death wagon at an assistant living place (I go to quite a few of them for my job). Other than maybe seeing something on tv and pictures in magazine, I haven't seen a dead person in reality.

Are you for real?

Ya I've seen dead people. Relatives, Dad, Mom, Granddad, Grandmother, Friends, trafic fatalitys. I can only guess that you have lead a very sheltered life or something. Who ever said it is right it does change you. It is even more life changing if it is someone close to you. Read the paper and go to a local funeral, they are open to anyone who wants to go, just be respectful.
Go to the Morge and look at the John doe's.

Yeah, I've seen a few. Some both before and after embalming. And with my father, I was there when he passed and I looked into his eyes as he drew his last breath. It's a surprisingly simple thing; to die. One minute you're breathing and alive. The next you aren't. No dramatics. His breathing slowed down, and then just stopped.

You will have plenty of opportunity to see all the dead people you will ever care to see. Friends, family, relatives, maybe even strangers. Unless you die young, you'll watch many of them go before you do.

Great-grandmother, grandfather, grandmother, friends. Being part of a airplane search-and-rescue team I saw the victoms of a plan crash. Very graphic. It's something I've never become used to. I do not deal well with death.

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Yes. As others have said above, many relatives and friends' funerals. I wasn't at my father's bedside at the moment of death, but got there shortly afterward, and just sat in the room with him for awhile. I've also passed some accident scenes where there were fatalities...I can remember one coming across Missouri. Very bad accident, the car was hardly recognizable...but the driver's arm was still hanging out of the window.

My older brother died about 20years ago, heart attack realated to diabetas,it was a really painfull death. the moutary tried to make him look good,they failed, it shuold have been a closed coffin! it wasn't a plesant experiance. Joe

I went to my first funeral when I was about 4 years old. It was for my great grandmother on my father's side. I've been to many funerals since then for both friends and family. If you have handled a piece of chicken, that is what a dead person feels like. The body may not look the same as the person did in life because it is totally relaxed. The last funeral I attended was for my grandmother on my father's side. They had a lockable drawer inside the casket that we used to leave some mementos in.

Death is one of the things that has changed in America-not that death has changed, but the way we deal with it. Way back when, most young people were acquainted with it early on, as the elderly family members usually died at home, and it was not uncommon to have the final viewing in the home itself, then a religious service at a nearby church and a motorcade to the cemetery. The only thing the funeral home had to do with it was the embalming process and dressing the deceased. It was common for the deceased to be dressed in pajama type clothing for some reason.

The way it used to be:

My paternal Grandfather happened to be visiting us in Houston, from his home in North Texas when I was about 10ish. 1960 +/- a couple of years. Would have to look it up. He had a stroke while at our home, was unable to return to North Texas, made somewhat of a recovery, then he passed away some weeks later in the wee hours of the morning-in bed-still at our home. My Father came to my room before they took him to the funeral home to wake us up and told my brother & I that Grandfather had died & to "come with me to tell him goodbye". It wasn't neccesary I guess, but it was my father's way of acquainting us young kids with death. The body was 'taken care of' at the local funeral home, and placed in a casket, and transported by train to North Texas, with my brother-in-law accompaning the casket in a baggage car. The casket was never left alone--that's the way it was. Someone rode with the body in a hearse from the train station in Texarkana, to my Grandfather's house, and the casket was set up in the living room for viewing. By that time, all the extended family had made the trip to North Texas. The casket stayed in the living room for a day & 1/2 I believe, and the adult children took turns staying beside it, as grandfather's friends and relatives visited their friend for the last time. If memory serves me right, he was dressed in sleeping wear of some kind--as was the practice at that time. The young grandchildren (it was a large family) from out of town stayed with friends of the family or relatives in the area, as we were likly to be noisy or a hindrance to the solemn event. There was a church service on the 3rd? day I think it was, but if I remember right, the casket was not opened at the church--which was almost next door to my Grandfather's home. A motorcade type procession to the cemetery and a few words over the casket and it was over.
By the time both my Grandmothers passed away, things had changed, and everything was taken care of at a funeral home as it is done today.

Some other things that have changed.
When my Grandmother on my Father's side died, there was no will that I know of. He certainly wasn't rich but did own a farm outright, with equipment and livestock. The practice was that the eldest son got everything if he wished to do so. In this case, that would be my Father. My Father asked only for 2 things. My Grandfather's old crosscut saw, and an honery old one-eyed mare all us grandchildren loved to ride. The farm was given by my Father to one of his brothers who was living with my Grandparents, as he had rheumatic fever as a child and was crippled. He worked, but didn't make much as he was unable to do a whole lot. The rest of the family agreed I belive after a short discussion.
Today, all my Grandparent's belongings would go straight into State probate.
BTW, that old mare bore a lot of foals over the years my Father had her, but she had a bad habit of running into trees on her blind side. Brushed me clean out of the saddle on more than one occassion.

Appreciate you folks letting me reminesce a little this morning. My Grandparents were wonderful people and I miss them dearly.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 02-12-2006).]

Mary Jane

You are right. People use to have their family funerals at their home. In all actuality homes had rooms called The Parlor Room. This was the room that people held funerals in and it happen frequently because people back in the day had large families and it was common for somebody to die, either young or old.

But during the turn of the 1900's, a very popular women's magazine of that time wrote articles about the Parlor Room and the home funeral as an old practice and not very hygenic. So they suggested that people set up businesses with the undertakers to have their funerals there, instead of in their homes.

People took this idea and ran with it. Soon many undertakers were having funerals at their facility and we now know it as the "Funeral Parlor".

Also. The women's magazine suggested using the parlor room for differenent but similar purposes. A room where people can sit around to chat and entertain. They suggested to people to rename the Parlor Room to Living Room, because it was suppose to be a place of life and not death.

Guess what. It worked. Their idea transfered the whole home funeral to what we know as the living room. A place to watch TV.

I worked in a hospital (engr, dept) and one evening two orderly's were pushing a stretcher with a dead person into the morgue. As I went by I saw a arm move under that sheet and the further I got down the hall I thought , now what if that person is alive. So I could no resist I went back to the morgue and opened the door as I had a master key and went in and I pulled the sheet back and I felt of the man and he was stiff and cold. So I stayed there a few minutes to see if he was going to move again but he did not. I just could stand the thoughts of burying a live person. So it made me feel better after seeing.
Don

quote Originally posted by Wichita: Their idea transfered the whole home funeral to .....A place to watch TV.

A slow and painful form of death.

I was an Air Force medical lab tech in the late 60s and worked under the pathology departments. I got to see many while in Vietnam, all too young.

Way too many.

Last ones were 17 and 18, slow down kids.

Too many to count. And I hate open caskets. They always look fake. The one that still haunts me is seeing the guy I dated.....he just looked creepy.

quote Originally posted by FieroDiva: Too many to count. And I hate open caskets. They always look fake. The one that still haunts me is seeing the guy I dated.....he just looked creepy.

I know what you mean, I've had a problem with open caskets since my brothers death,you could tell by looking at him that his death was extremly painfull, it was hard on everybody there. Joe

What caused you to post this? Interesting... as other have said, it changes you.

I've seen a few dead strangers, when I was a kid one was a lady that burned herself in her house. they took her out without a sheet on or anything. That freaked the heck outta me. I saw a few car accident victims that were pretty rough over the years.

My Grandparents were the first "family" that passed away, and THAT was sad. A few other relatives, very very sad as well.
A coworker was hit by a drunk driver and the guy backed up and ran him over again, to make sure he was dead. Seeing him in the casket was REALLY hard to come to terms with. he had sent me an email via his BB a few moments before the guy ran the light and hit him. He lost his life,His wife lost a husband, his daughters lost their father, and the guy that did it spent about 3 years in jail.

Death is bad enough, but when it happens like THAT, it just SUCKS.

At a job I had, a woman donated her fetus to medical research (She didn't have an abortion, the fetus died from natural causes) and It was my job to remove the organs and harvest certain cells...lemme tell you, THAT was disturbing, not sure why I did that, but THAT left me feeling a bit "odd" for awhile...

I worked every other night and every other weekend at a funeral home while going to college. The owner allowed me access to his library for reference materials to use for a term paper I wrote on funeral customs around the world for my cultural anthropology class. Some cultures have very bizarre perspectives/practices when it comes to death, those of us in the USA not withstanding.
The most disturbing encounter with death I've had was looking into the eyes of an auto accident victim I was trying to comfort as she passed.

I worked for two and a half years as a security guard at a local hospital. One of my jobs was putting bodies in the morgue. Old, young, newborns and a couple people I knew since I've lived most my life in Hampton. Toughest was a little boy with a congenital defect about the same age as my daughter at the time, about five or six. Accident and murder victims, neighbors and old friends I kept it together for them, but this little stranger made me think of losing my child and I was a wreck. Quit shortly after that.

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John DuRette
Custom 85 SE/87 Coupe
"Kinda makes you nostalgic for a Members Only jacket"

Do Viet Namese count?

Witchita, I actually hadn't seen a dead person until just recently, being just in the past few months. I had never been to a funeral, never seen a really horrible traffic accident, you know all of that kind of thing. But when I started dating my current gf, I had two funerals that I accompanied her to within the course of maybe a week. The first one I went to I stayed as far away from the casket as I could, not wanting to look being as I had never seen a dead body before. I was physically afraid to go up and take a look. Not even morbid curiosity got the better of me. The second time I actually did take go take a look. It was quite a stange experience. knowing that the person lying there is dead. But a had to laugh at myself for not doing doing it earlier, like what was i afraid of? They body to reach out and grab me?? Death is strange thing. the only experience I've had with it other than that was putting my dog down who was dying of cancer. Ok so i'm rambling so I think I'll sign off for now.....

quote Originally posted by Phil: Do Viet Namese count?

This was an interesting thread until that comment. Really poor judgement...

Ask Maryjane - you get numb to it after awhile

quote Originally posted by Phil: Ask Maryjane - you get numb to it after awhile

Something that can't fully be appreciated without first hand experience.
Thankfully, most people can't fully appreciate what you mean.

Yep... found the step father of one of my friends from high school. He was face down in the bushes and first thing that struck my friend and I was "wow, that's a pretty freaky halloween display" then at the same time, we both realized that it was like December 22nd.

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quote Originally posted by Phil: Ask Maryjane - you get numb to it after awhile

That still doesn't explain or excuse your callous comment.

That's not numb... that's being a racist jackass bastard

I saw 100's of Americans and 1000's of Viet cong - they all count

quote Originally posted by Phil: I saw 100's of Americans and 1000's of Viet cong - they all count

Sure, now you say it.

quote Originally posted by Phil: Do Viet Namese count?

I realize that as a soldier in battle (which I assume you were) you needed to de-humanize the enemy in order to cope, but continuing years afterwards to view other people as less than human can't be healthy.