I had just graduated from Michigan State and I was working at a hospital. I was a security guard, I worked at night. Part of my job was putting bodies in the morgue and doing that kind of thing. I used to put bodies in the morgue and take them out. When I got done doing that at the hospital, in the morning I would work out before I went to sleep.
It was plain to see the Hollywood undertakers take care of everything. If you die you don't have to lift a finger.
Ceremony is-really a protection, too, in times of emotional involvement, particularly at death. If we have a social formula to guide us and do not have to extemporize, we feel better able to handle life.
For me as a writer, it was understanding that we're so far behind in our way of dealing with death. We put someone in the ground, we bury them or we burn them, and then we're supposed to just move on and kind of get over it.
Speaking of, her family is due in any minute to claim her body. What am I supposed to tell them when we can’t give the body over? Again, I don’t think ‘oops’ will quite cover it. (Tate)
The biggest problem is the funerals that don't exist. People call the funeral home, they pick up the body, they mail the ashes to you, no grief, no happiness, no remembrance, no nothing. That happens more often than it doesn't in the United States.
All considerations for these human remains! They must have an escort! They are classified!
They might have been all-right people doing the best they could, but I got to tell you, you got a dead cat lying in your yard you ought to bury it. That’s my motto.
I so seldom had to dispose of a human body myself, I was at a loss. Fairies turned into dust, and vampires flaked away. Demons had to be burned. Humans were very troublesome.
