15 People Reveal The Craziest Stories Of Working In A Funeral Home
Friday, Aug 21, 2020, 4:03 pm
By:James Fraser
There is always an element of fear attached to death and dead bodies. As ordinary people, we don't often get to see a corpse closely. However, funeral workers have to deal with them on a daily basis. From embalming dead bodies to making funeral arrangements, they literally make money from death. They do a fantastic job, though. Some of their work experiences send chills down our spine. Read fifteen workplace stories of funeral workers that will scare the hell out of you.
1.The Scary Touch
I used to work in tissue recovery. My least favorite part was prepping a donor for recovery, as it included shaving the arms/legs. Once, we had a donor who was very freshly deceased. I held his hand to shave his arm, and his fingers curled around my hand as rigor mortis set in.
That was exceptionally creepy.
2.The Voice of Death
If corpses have a lungful of air, then moving them causes it to release. When the air travels through their throat, you get some minor vocalization, but it's usually just a liquidy gurgle. It still gets me sometimes, though, if I'm working alone.
-Loverboy21
3.Oh No!
I was filling out paperwork over one of the bodies while working late when it shuddered. Never saw that before or after, no explanation.
4.This Scary Incident
I've only experienced something one time and that was around 10PM, after two years with no activity at the location. I had turned all the lights off in the chapel, and when I went to check the casket door, the lights turned back on. I was nowhere near the switch.
-Tejnin
5.The Flickering Thing's All Real?
I’m a nurse, and the only place I've ever seen the lights flicker is just outside the morgue. They are fine almost all of the time but when we bring a body down the lights always flicker. Really creeps me out.
6.That Was Horrible!
I'm a funeral director/embalmer and I have seen... just so many bad funerals. One that really stood out was the time that a family released doves in a rural cemetery, after being told not to, and a hawk ripped one to pieces.
Read More: Worst Funeral Selfies
7.This Wasn't a Good Sight Either
I was a part-time funeral director's assistant. We once had an elderly woman with a glass eye who requested it be kept wide open for the service. Gave me a hell of a fright when I saw her in her casket.
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8.Strange!
My mom works in the funeral business. Sometimes I would come to work with her and help her set up the chapel for a service. One service in particular was of a little boy who drowned. His parents dressed his identical twin brother in the same outfit as him for the funeral.
9.Man's Best Friend
My mother worked in a funeral home. One day, she was asked to go up in the attic to look for some old records, and came across a baby coffin. She went to move it with her foot, and could tell it wasn't empty. Immediately went back downstairs and asked the director about it. Apparently it's a client’s embalmed dog that's being stored until he dies, so that they can be buried together upon his death.
-hate_my_login
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10.That Was a Little Awkward
We had a dead clown one time. This person was buried in full clown costume with makeup and all. At the family's request, the funeral directors were clowns too. They supplied costume and did our makeup. Family and friends had one teardrop painted on near the eye.
-spicemaster242
11.This Will Make You Cringe Hard
One of the creepiest for me was having to clean a gentleman up... I was supposed to clean his eyes, as well. Opened those up only to see two empty sockets. No eyes. Apparently, it was a post-autopsy embalming.
12.Punching a Corpse?
I worked at a funeral home for a while when I was a teenager. After an open casket viewing, a man came in saying he wanted to pay his respects privately. No big deal that is fairly common.
We led him into the viewing room, opened up the casket and told him to take his time. A couple of minutes later we're sitting in the office and hear a really loud popping sound, followed by running and the door slamming. We ran into the viewing room and the deceased's mouth was hanging open and the skin was odd looking. The best we can figure is that he punched the guy and took off.
-Gingervitus455
13.This Unfortunate Incident
I have a sad one from a funeral director's perspective. Separated parents were mourning the loss of their toddler at the visitation before the funeral. The mom was grieving unlike any mother I've seen grieve over the loss of a child - almost fake. She proceeded to pick up the deceased child, "hide" him in her coat, and walked out the door when no one was looking. The other funeral director I work with found the mom running to her car where he stopped her and grabbed the kid. We found out two months later that the mother and her new boyfriend had physically abused the kid, causing its death.
-chew_ice
14.Oh Man, Funeral Home Jobs are Creepy
A man was brought to us after lying dead in his garage for 3 weeks in the summertime. He was covered in bugs, his skin was black and green, and the flesh sloshed right off the bone. I couldn't do anything for that case, he was cremated.
-Tejnin
15.Scary Again
We were prepping and washing the body of a 90 year old woman. One of her toenails fell off, and the hair on her head kept falling out. It took a good 3 hours to get her hair put back in one strand of hair at a time to make it look acceptable.
-Wormwood03
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