Wednesday, February 20, 2002
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Wednesday, February 20, 2002 |
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If it's broken, fix it By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
By now, everybody has heard about the bodies found around the crematorium in Noble, Ga. The owner, Brent Marsh, said that he improperly disposed of the bodies because the crematory was broken. Like it was the shake machine at a Burger King. That's why we fix things, Mr. Marsh, or things just start piling up on you. We may never get a straight answer as to why Marsh didn't get the crematory fixed. We may also never find out why bodies were disposed in the wooded area around the crematorium or stacked on top of each other in vaults. It is a gruesome story that has received international attention. I think this is because human beings are interested in death and all that surrounds it. Death is inevitable. It will happen to us all and will affect everybody we know. We fear death because we're unsure of what happens next. Is it painful? Do we go to the afterlife, is it the afterlife we are hoping for or is there absolutely nothing after we draw our last breath? Throughout the ages people have tried to make the transition from life to death as nice as possible for the deceased. Egyptians mummified their dead, placing them inside tombs with all of their worldly possessions. Vikings laid their dead on a boat, set the boat on fire and cast the boat to sea. For most people, though, burying their dead was enough, or cremating them and keeping or scattering their ashes. These were ways to honor the dead, but really, it was a way for the living to work through their grief. For the people who have relatives that were supposed to have been cremated in Noble and apparently weren't, I can understand some of the feelings that they are expressing. The case was supposed to be closed, so to speak. They had received ashes, thinking they were the ashes of their loved one, and had moved on with their lives. Now they may have to deal with their loved one's death again. It is disturbing and uncomfortable but it cannot possibly measure up to the initial shock of their loved one's passing. I have started to hear that some people want to sue the crematorium and I can't understand why. The authorities should book Marsh on charges of fraud, but why should the loved ones be able to sue him? If the bodies were never discovered, the ashes that the people received would still be accepted as those of their loved ones. This just shows that it doesn't really matter what the ashes really are. The people believed they were the remains of their loved ones and they went along with their lives accordingly. It's not like the dead have been haunting their loved ones saying, "Those aren't my ashes, avenge my miscremation thing." The soundbites from the people on the news are what really bother me though. One lady said "It's my worst nightmare." This can't be true. Your worst nightmare is your death, followed closely by the test you didn't study for or going to school naked. Another lady said "I thought he was resting in peace, turns out he was resting in pieces." That's funny. It sounded like she had tried that one out on a couple of people before she was quoted on the news. Those affected are entitled to be upset, but not more upset than when this person first died. They should get their money back for the service that was never performed and they should be able to yell at Marsh before he is jailed but enough is enough. It's a bad enough story without everybody coming out and trying to one up everyone else on how horrified they are. I don't mean to sound too cold, but I have dealt with death before, both on a personal level and a professional level. I used to work as a transporter at a hospital. I would take patients to their rooms and their tests and I would deliver medicine and lab results to the floors. Another of my duties included morgue runs. Morgue runs involved going to the morgue, getting a gurney, going to the patient's room, getting the deceased and taking him to the morgue. One of the strangest policies was that, in the event that we were doing a morgue run and on our way to the morgue we ran into visitors, we were to take the sheet off of the deceased's head and talk to the deceased as if he or she were still alive. This was done so that visitors would not be freaked out. You see, the feelings of the living came first. It doesn't matter to the dead guy if you take off the sheet and start talking about baseball, politics or television. He's dead. Nothing on earth is going to bother him again. So, yes, having bodies all over the place in Noble is gross, disgusting and disturbing, but the dead people aren't the ones crying out. They should be dealt with properly, as should careless crematorium manager, Brent Marsh, but it is not the end of the world.
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