Ever been to an open casket funeral? (to open, or not open? That is the question)

[Spartacus]

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Cold like a stone.

actaully they are room temperature..~72 or so..feels cold as you are used to feeling warmth from another..what was wierd for me intitially when I was training to embalm was feeling a dead body that was warm..I'm thinking,they're dead,why are they warm?...a freshly deceased body will actauuly increase in temp for a short period after death,then of course it cools...the quickest way to determine time of death is to measure body temp..allowing for extraneous factors such as the environment of the death(e.g. dying in the snow),insulation of the deceased etc...and Pam you must have been emotionally moved enough to kiss the deceased....and for the record a properly embalmed body is more sanitized than a live one fresh form the shower..living people's skin is swarming with microbes..an embalmed body is both cleaned and no longer producing sweat and/or excreting body toxins as a live one..much less of a suitable environment for pathogens and germs and their buddies..we will work for hours rebuilding the faces of accident victims and gunshot suicides..I'll suture with dental floss and rebuild crushed skulls and mandibles just so the family of the deceased can have a viewing and have some closure...its vitally important that the loved one's are at least able to see that in fact thier family member is gone.. I woke up this morning with a phone call that a guy was killed in a car accident..before I was even able to see the guy myself(he was out hunting in the backwoods of alabama) the family was imploring me to let them see him..I haven't even had my coffee and I'm diplomatically dealing with an obviously stressed family and trying to explain to them that it might not be a good idea..I had to see the guy myself and then make a judgment call..the family was really persistant and after I cleaned him up to some extent I allowed one of his 3 sons to view him(he wasn't that bad,died from a broken neck most likely,but he still had a fair amount of lacerations and abrasions on one side of his head,i.e. he was still bleeding)..the son viewed him and then agreed it was best to wait until after I embalmed him before the rest fo the family could view..just an example of the importance to view the deceased so as to have some confirmation.

 

[Ashamed]

fuck your posts are long.... u an undertaker or summit?

 

[Pamela]

Pam you must have been emotionally moved enough to kiss the deceased.

He was my brother.That I was very close to. I actually thought it was a dream.. It wasn't real.
It took years to get over it..I use to dream he would come back just to let me know he was OK!

 

[Ashamed]

Does anyone else freak that their dead relatives might be watching them masturbate?

Well, that's my thought for today.....

 

[Heahy Minister]

The two funerals I've been to, both my grandparents, were open casket.

I don't see the problem with it at all. Wasn't creepy to me.

I prefer open casket myself. It allows you to see the person in a manner with which he/she is in ultimate traquility and peace. What's so creepy about that?

I also kissed both my grandparents and it was very touching. Sure they were not warm, but they were soooo at peace I felt a sense of happiness in a way as well.