So I saw my first non-fresh, non-embalmed corpse today.

[moriah]

A neighbor died, and my landlord knocked on my door to ask me to come in with her to make sure she was dead.

I didn't even have to touch her, I could tell by the color of her body she'd been dead at least 24 hours.

The coroner just left. I had to make a statement to them and to the police about what I knew about her and what I did when I entered her apartment.

I'm still shaken up.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Of course you are, my dear moriah...

It's really not easy to come face to face with our own mortality.

Be good to yourself...

[blackcrowflies]

2. did he ask you because you're a doctor or nurse?

Otherwise I would have thought he'd have called 911.

[moriah]

3. Female landlord, knew I was her friend, and was in shock at seeing her...

Then when I confirmed that she definitely didn't look alive, she called 911.

Not a nurse, no, but just knew her well and knew what she looked like. Her color was *all* wrong. I also have CPR training, but could tell by looking it was too late for CPR.

[Skittles]

4. I would have said no

no way do I volunteer to see a dead body, not even at a funeral....I would have called 911

[moriah]

5. I'd been friends with her, and the landlord knew it... she was also pretty panicked.

I was hoping that maybe I could have done something since I knew CPR, but it was just too late.

I'm still sad for her. To die alone and not be found for days...

[hedgehog]

7. If it's any consolation, that's my Dad's goal when he checks out -

to die suddenly and not be found right away.

[moriah]

10. I'd rather be found quickly. Wouldn't want to stink up a place. n/t

[sharp_stick]

6. I'm sorry, that's a tough one

the first time.

You'll be OK but it might take a bit of time to shake it.

[Jenoch]

8. I saw a dead body when I was 8 years old.

My dad was a reporter and I tagged along with him to an accident scene. We got there before the body was covered. I was told to stay in the car, but of course I didn't. When my dad caught me, he dragged me back to the car and this time I stayed put. If he knew the accident was a fatality, he would not have let me go with him. I don't remember being traumatized, but I have not forgotten the experience either.

My brothers are cops. One once had to cut down a man who hung himself. The other brother had to pick up a severed head from the railroad tracks. Many DUers are super critical of cops. Sometimes it is a terrible job.

[ailsagirl]

20. Yikes

What a difficult and demanding job.

It takes a lot of courage to be a cop or fireman, I've always felt.

Or to be married to one.

[Jenoch]

21. My brother who cut down the dead man

was a high school classmate of the victim's son. My brother was 26 years old when he had to do that. He only drew his gun once when he went into a drugstore in which the door had been breeched. Thankfully, the perp was already gone. My other brother was involved in a car chase in which the perps shot at him. They crashed, and went into a cornfield, (rural Minnesota) he sent in the K-9 (dog) and the dog subdued them. Neither of my brothers have ever shot anyone, and yet from reading DU, it seems most here think all cops are murderers.

Heres a reminder, both of my brothers say they have never had to cut the seatbelt away from a dead person. (They routinely cut the seatbelts away from people involved in traffiic accidents.

My brothers are now retired (both in their 50s) the vast majority of their calls from dispatch involved medicals. One of my brothers was awarded a citation for going into a burning house, twice, and saving the elderly couple from their bedroom.

I no longer immediately defend cops
online like I used to. I do know that most cops resble my brothers than the police officers who cross the line.

[moriah]

27. I'm glad I was an adult, not a child....

.... the first dead embalmed body I ever saw was my great-grandmother's, at age 9... but at least she was embalmed and made up.

I feel for you, hon.

[Jenoch]

28. Like I said, I don't remember having any trauma from it.

I saw my paternal grandfather in his coffin at the age of six. My maternal grandfather died when I was 11. My parents did not try to 'protect' us from death. I have a SIL who did not allow my brother to bring them to our grandmother's funeral. I think that was a mistake. The did attend their own grandparents' funerals however. My brothers, myself, and our father were at my mother's bedside when she died. I feel lucky to do so. My father was at her bedside when she died on her 86th birthday.

[Solly Mack]

9. That can be very upsetting.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

11. I can empathize with you.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

12. As a former undertaker,

you get used to it pretty fast, but I've known people who have discovered a dead homeless person (ie complete stranger), and have felt deeply disturbed for many days later.

I've seen people dead faced down on the floor, sitting on their toilets, slumped down in their kitchen with food on the counter, as well as a few suicides and homicides, and many accidents. The weirdest thing about (especially) the domestic ones, is the sense of the person's body being there in its environment, but clearly they are no longer there.

[orleans]

13. just curious--and i hope you don't mind my asking--but...why "former" undertaker? n/t

[Joe Shlabotnik]

14. lol, I just moved on to more lucrative opportunities

in entirely different fields, and before I knew it years past by and my licenses had expired.

[orleans]

15. okay--that makes sense. i just wondered since it's a rather unique field. at least imo. n/t

[Archae]

16. Saw my Dad the day he died.

He looked peaceful, and actually smiling a little.

I didn't lose it though until they brought the body bag out the bedroom he died in.

[moriah]

25. I was there when my Dad finally passed, but I felt weird that i didn't cry.

I did my crying while he was still alive, when I saw what shape he was in... 15 BMI, totally white hair.... a shell of the man I remembered.

I gave him a hug, then said I had to get something out of the car.... called a woman who was like a second mother to me and bawled my eyes out at how bad off he was.

When he finally passed, though... I didn't cry. About six months later, a House episode reminded me of him and I finally shed a few tears, but not many. I feel like I was a bad daughter not to weep for his death, but it felt like he was at peace, so there was no need to weep anymore.

[Bombero1956]

17. When I was a probie firefighter at one of my first fires

We had 4 children die. The mother worked second shift and had a babysitter watch the kids until 11:30 every night. By that time they would all in bed and the sitter would leave them by themselves until the mother got home at 12:15 in the morning. We one night there was an electrical short in the walls and with no smoke detectors and nobody awake the kids all died of smoke inhalation. One of the worse memories I have is of tripping over one of the bodies in the dark. That kept me awake at night for a long time.

[ailsagirl]

19. That's horrifying

How tragic

[ailsagirl]

18. How upsetting

You certainly handled it better than I would have.

[Ex Lurker]

22. Saw my grandmother a few moments after she passed

we were very, very close. She suffered a long time, and was at peace. She had left her body behind, and was somewhere else.

[moriah]

23. I was with my dad when he passed, and the hospital let me bless my Grandmother's body...

..... but that was well before rigor set in.

I know she's at peace now, but it still breaks my heart. I wish i'd had the guts to try CPR even if it was too late. I just freaked instead.

[RebelOne]

24. I had almost the same experience.

I had been worried about my neighbor because her car was in the drive and I tried to reach her by phone and knocking on her door. I called her work number and someone said that they had not seen her all week.

OK, I was really worried by then and called the county sheriff's office. They came out and I said that I would have to go in to get the dog because he did not like uniforms and may attack. So since the doors were locked the sheriffs brought a ladder and forced open a bedroom window where I was able to climb in. The dog was locked in the back bathroom. I grabbed his leash and secured him. Then I smelled a horrible stench in the front bedroom. I went to the door and was knocked over by the smell. I could see her lying on the bed, but I knew she was dead.

It was like something like a horror movie for me. I ran to the front door to let the deputies in and it wouldn't open. I finally got it open and let the deputies in. She had been dead for almost a week. This was in May and the temperature was warm, and as she lived in a mobile home, her body decomposed quickly. The coroner said she died from a heart attack. She was only 54.

[moriah]

26. She was only 50. I don't know if the coroner will tell any of us the results of the autopsy, but ..

..... I suspect it was a combination of all of the pills she took and the fact she was so skinny. I wouldn't be surprised if her heart just gave out from having an anorexic BMI.