Were you aware that funeral homes have "display" coffins?
Yup, it's a thing.
Oh yea, there are all kinds of options to choose from apparently. Like different colors, fabrics, and styles that you can look at when going to a funeral parlor, hence why they have a few "models" put out on display.
Let me preface this story so you understand that I'm just not hanging out at funeral parlors trying to get a jump start on my Christmas shopping.
20 years ago I lost a very good friend, we were 20 and 21. This was especially hard as we were all so young so for many of us this was not only the first person we knew who died but the first time we were faced with our own mortality. 20 year olds don't die, we are invincible, right?
So fast forward, my friends and I went to the cemetery and to go and see where our friend had been buried and leave flowers. Of course we got lost looking for her tombstone and spent a good hour walking around trying to find where our friend was buried. This was an entirely awkward experience as we walked rows of graves looking for our friend. I walked near the top of the tombstones and apologized to every single dead person I walked over. I mean I didn't want to be rude and I certainly didn't want them to haunt me for having bad manors. When we couldn't find her, we walked down to the funeral parlor and tried to find someone working there to see if they could assist us.
We walked around, down empty hallways and past locked rooms when we came upon some double doors that opened up into what looked like a small theater with gradual stadium seating. The room was empty but down on the alter area was an open coffin with a mans body inside. It was an open casket and we could see a man laying inside! My friends started to freak out, so me with my whole 20 years of life experience, calmly said "Guys, you don't need to be freaked out, that's just a display body. You know because the place is selling caskets so they want to give you an idea of what it would look like with a body inside."
The piercing silence of the funeral home was interrupted when loud booming laughter exploded from behind us! We apparently found the funeral director who, after wiping his tears of laughter from his face, informed us where we could located our friend out in the cemetery. (P.S. all I kept thinking what that this guy is lucky to work with dead people since he has exactly zero people skills! I mean, who the hell laughs at a group of girls who accidentally walked into a pre-funeral?... Ass.)
He directed us where to go and as we walked outside he yells, "Oh, and girls. There's no such things as a display body." (Chuckling loudly as he walked away.)
"OMG! That was a real life dead body!" So now we were all really freaked out and felt a little guilty that we were just standing there staring at some random guy laying in his coffin. And yes, 20 years later I can still see his face like it was yesterday. I mean I stared at his "display body" for a few minutes and kept thinking "I wonder how they picked this guy to be their display body? Did they order him from a catalog or was he borrowed from a wax museum? Does the funeral parlor have 'display bodies' in all ethnicities? How very P.C. of them." So I'm an idiot but in all fairness if you're morbid enough to want to pre-order your own coffin maybe, just maybe you want to know what you'll look like in it.
Anyway, we found where our friend was buried and a little part of me loves that even in the middle of sadness we were able to share a laugh. I knew these girls would be a part of my life forever. I mean anyone who will stand by me when I say stupid things is alright in my book. To this day, I can only imagine whenever we go back to leave flowers at our friends grave that poor funeral director still gets a laugh at the group of girls who thought the cemetery ordered "display bodies."
Yup, it's a thing.
Oh yea, there are all kinds of options to choose from apparently. Like different colors, fabrics, and styles that you can look at when going to a funeral parlor, hence why they have a few "models" put out on display.
Let me preface this story so you understand that I'm just not hanging out at funeral parlors trying to get a jump start on my Christmas shopping.
20 years ago I lost a very good friend, we were 20 and 21. This was especially hard as we were all so young so for many of us this was not only the first person we knew who died but the first time we were faced with our own mortality. 20 year olds don't die, we are invincible, right?
So fast forward, my friends and I went to the cemetery and to go and see where our friend had been buried and leave flowers. Of course we got lost looking for her tombstone and spent a good hour walking around trying to find where our friend was buried. This was an entirely awkward experience as we walked rows of graves looking for our friend. I walked near the top of the tombstones and apologized to every single dead person I walked over. I mean I didn't want to be rude and I certainly didn't want them to haunt me for having bad manors. When we couldn't find her, we walked down to the funeral parlor and tried to find someone working there to see if they could assist us.
We walked around, down empty hallways and past locked rooms when we came upon some double doors that opened up into what looked like a small theater with gradual stadium seating. The room was empty but down on the alter area was an open coffin with a mans body inside. It was an open casket and we could see a man laying inside! My friends started to freak out, so me with my whole 20 years of life experience, calmly said "Guys, you don't need to be freaked out, that's just a display body. You know because the place is selling caskets so they want to give you an idea of what it would look like with a body inside."
The piercing silence of the funeral home was interrupted when loud booming laughter exploded from behind us! We apparently found the funeral director who, after wiping his tears of laughter from his face, informed us where we could located our friend out in the cemetery. (P.S. all I kept thinking what that this guy is lucky to work with dead people since he has exactly zero people skills! I mean, who the hell laughs at a group of girls who accidentally walked into a pre-funeral?... Ass.)
He directed us where to go and as we walked outside he yells, "Oh, and girls. There's no such things as a display body." (Chuckling loudly as he walked away.)
"OMG! That was a real life dead body!" So now we were all really freaked out and felt a little guilty that we were just standing there staring at some random guy laying in his coffin. And yes, 20 years later I can still see his face like it was yesterday. I mean I stared at his "display body" for a few minutes and kept thinking "I wonder how they picked this guy to be their display body? Did they order him from a catalog or was he borrowed from a wax museum? Does the funeral parlor have 'display bodies' in all ethnicities? How very P.C. of them." So I'm an idiot but in all fairness if you're morbid enough to want to pre-order your own coffin maybe, just maybe you want to know what you'll look like in it.
Anyway, we found where our friend was buried and a little part of me loves that even in the middle of sadness we were able to share a laugh. I knew these girls would be a part of my life forever. I mean anyone who will stand by me when I say stupid things is alright in my book. To this day, I can only imagine whenever we go back to leave flowers at our friends grave that poor funeral director still gets a laugh at the group of girls who thought the cemetery ordered "display bodies."