Funeral Home Workers Describe The Creepiest Thing That They've Witnessed On The Job
For most people, just the idea of being around a lifeless body gives them the creeps, but for funeral home workers, corpses are the only way to make a living. Embalmers, morticians, and funeral directors spend most of their time with the no-longer-living, collecting some pretty grueling stories along the way.
We’ve gathered some of the creepiest experiences funeral home workers have had, which were shared on Reddit, and we're still recovering from the heebie-jeebies.
Body Grips Medical Technician
From Redditor /u/PM_ME_KITTENS_PLEASE:
I used to work in tissue recovery. My least favorite part was prepping the donor for recovery process, as it included shaving the arms/legs. Though we tried to be careful, I would every now and then accidentally nick the person's skin. It felt borderline sociopathic.
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.
Body Sits Up All By Itself
From Redditor /u/the_8th_henry:
My neighbor a while back before I moved was a mortician. He didn't have any creepy stories per se, but one that sticks out concerned this one night he had a body he was preparing for a very early morning wake or service (whatever was going on, it was unusual, and it required him to work into the wee hours of the morning on this particular corpse).
So as he's working on it, he turned his back to grab some tools or supplies, and the angle he was standing at with regard to the corpse left the body visible just out of the corner of his eye. As he was looking down at whatever tools he was getting, in the corner of his eye he saw the body slowly start to sit up. His fight/flight instinct immediately kicked in, and he ran to the stairs as fast as he possibly could, but he was so clumsy trying to get up the stairs he tripped and was pretty much crawling and clawing his way to the top.
He was just near the top before his senses finally came back, and he knew it was rigor mortis. He collected himself and started to laugh at how absurd it all was. He had been doing this for 15-20 years at that point, and he had never had a freak out like that before where instinct overtook knowledge and experience. He actually sheepishly admitted he had to go clean himself because he had sh*t his pants in the panic.
Bodies Moan And Groan As You Move Them
From Redditor /u/Loverboy21:
Well, if [bodies] happen to 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.
Lights Flicker Every Time A New Body Is Brought In
From Redditor /u/NurseSexKitten:
Nurse here[. ...] 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.
A Body Shivers In The Presence Of Living Ones
From Redditor /u/Pays_in_snakes:
I was filling out paperwork over one of the stiffs all by myself while working late when it shuddered. Never saw that before or after, no explanation.
Lights Flicker On And Off By Themselves
From Redditor /u/Tejnin:
I only experienced something one time and that was around 10pm, after 2 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 no where near the switch.