Oh yes indeed I have.
But I'm sorry to say there's no hummus here.

When I was about 7 or so and not living in the UK, my ex-stepmother was working for some Baptist magazine, (I know - I was surprised too). This fact, which may seem apropos of nothing, is important.

One day, she announced that a friend of hers had been killed in an accident, had to be identified, and that we were going to have to go to the morgue to do it. My young mind lacked the critical faculties to ask questions like, "Why aren't her parents doing this?" and "Why are you taking ME along?" I simply trusted.

We got there and were led through to an area where there were some half a dozen bodies on gurneys, more or less covered by sheets. I stayed here with an attendant while stepmother went to identify her friend behind closed doors. I looked around. The one memory that sticks in my head was of a man's arm, uncovered. It looked like a subway map picked out in purple on pale cream. Some of the underside from elbow to wrist was a deep crimson.

Shortly after, she came back and was quite composed. She talked to me about the experience at some length in the car on the way home. What did I see? How did I feel? Was I upset by the dead people? What did I think about being dead?

Some weeks later, it was revealed to me (by her lunatic mother) that she had been researching an article. An article on how children react to death.

There *was* no friend in an accident. She'd used me as her test subject. Looking back on it, I suspect that the 'attendant' may well have worked there, but he was certainly in on the deal.

For the record, I was apparently quite unaffected by it and have no desire as an adult to sleep in a coffin or put very pale makeup on. No, she screwed me up in a hundred other ways that took me to my mid-twenties to sort out.

Oh - and I watched my wife die some years ago. I have to say that sucked pretty badly. Took her about ten minutes after the doctors ceased resus, (though it felt like a year). Half an hour or so after that, her skin looked alot like the guy I mentioned above. Though not as hairy, clearly.
(Guizmeaux, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 18:35, Reply)