I have never seen a dead body.
Yes at 27 years old, I am yet to even glimpse on a real life corpse. Which makes answering this question difficult. But I am on a mission to answer every single QOTW.

Death has always been something that I've never really had to deal with. I have a memory of my uncle dieing when I was a kid. I went to the funeral and ended up a complete emotional wreck. I wasnt even that close to him. He was just the guy down the club that could drink my dad under the table and give us sweets. I remember seeing him in hospital barely able to talk as lung cancer took a hold.
The whole funeral experience watching the candles burn down, the prayers and seeing adults cry just set me off and apparantly I cried all day. I was more upset than his wife.

A little older my grandmother died. She was on the same side of the family, so as such was a bit distant. I remember going up there on Sundays and seeing her just sat in her chair and wasnt able to do much. She used to have a TV pinned to her face because she was going blind. Soon TV was just replaced with a radio. She ended up in a nursing home and died there.

I was asked if I wanted to go see the body at the wake. I declined. I knew that if I did then thats how I would remember her. A dead body layed in a coffin would be quite a shocking sight. I feared it would remove all memories of talking to her on those Sunday afternoons.

Luckily I have never had someone really close to me ever die. I sometimes imagine.. roll play in my head if you like what would happen if I lost a brother or a parent and how I would feel. I think I'd be completely wrecked to be honest. The sad thing is, the days will inevitably come.


To be honest, I dont think i'd particularly like to see any dead body at a wake. I do believe that when someone dies, the actual person leaves the body. The body is no more than a representation of what the person once was. I don't see the point in saying goodbye to a corpse. I'd probably rather say goodbye with an old photo. At least the life was in it then.

Appologies for lack of humour. Death isn't funny. Next week we need a side splitting QOTW. One so funny we all hurt with laughter!
(Miggyman, Fri 29 Feb 2008, 15:46, Reply)