I hadn't until I was in my 20s. Jewish funerals (the only funerals I have attended) never have viewings of bodies. Then I went to the funeral of a mass killing of a family (another story for another time!) and there were open three open caskets (not Jewish). That was the first time I've ever seen a dead body.
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Yes, but it wasn't until I think like last year when I accompanied my MIL to a funeral she didn't want to go to alone and no one else was available. Open casket.
It freaked me out a little.
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Yes. Too many to count.
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Oh yeah. Been to plenty of open casket funerals.
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Yeah, my cousin, my grandmand my great grandma. It freaked me out too and I really don't like the viewing of the body.
It's just... it's not them anymore! That's not who they are! They aren't in that body... so I don't want to remember them that way.
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Yep. Sadly, I've seen several. My mom let me go to viewings starting around 12 years old.
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Yes, I was there when my younger bil (ex) passed away, he was 19, and I was there when my Pawpaw recently passed. I also worked at the hospital so I saw a number of people die/dead. I hate open caskets though... I do. not. want one!
ETA: G was there when Pawpaw passed, but it was on his terms... for the most part he was in the back room playing.
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Yep. My grandmother used to work at a funeral home doing office work and when I was little and visited her, she would tour us around. It totally creeped me out.
Since then, I've seen numerous dead bodies for funerals and such. I'm fine with it after they are "fixed up" by the funeral people. But I can't deal with it if it had just happened. My grandfather passed away in April and my mom called me right after it happened and asked if I wanted to come over before the funeral home came to get his body and I was like "heck no!" I'd rather remember him alive and well.
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I hadn't until last August. I had only been to closed casket funerals. My FIL's funeral last year was the first time I had been to an open casket funeral.
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@Mrs. Pen: that's exactly how I feel. When I saw my grandfather, I cried because of how my grandmother was taking it (that broke my heart), but I knew he was no longer "there."
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I went to my stepmother's mother's funeral when I was 9 but I don't really remember her. My granddaddy died when I was 16, that's the first one I really remember. His skin looked paper thin.
I've gone to two funerals since, one a good friend of my stepsister's/next door neighbor--he OD'd on huffing air duster--I was home a few years ago and saw him for the first time since our graduation, he mentioned that he used to huff air duster (because he was on probation and was being drug tested), I called him an idiot and he said he didn't do it anymore--his mom found him in the backyard the next morning. I still can't use air duster, DH has to blow out my keyboard.
The other was one of DH's best friends a few days after we got engaged. Rock climbing accident.
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3 in real life.
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Yep, at open-casket wakes and stuff like that, but also, unfortunately, at accident/crime scenes, since I work as a newspaper reporter. The worst is seeing a dead body in a situation like that when the family hasn't even been notified yet. Worst part of my job.
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Once, in grade 8. One of my best friends mom died and it was an open casket. It was really shocking for a lot of us, especially since were were 13.
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Only ever at funerals. I hate seeing the dead body though.... talk about heebie jeebies.
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also Jewish so I've only been to closed casket funerals, but I was with my grandmother when she passed away so I did see her...
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Yes, I've been to two open-casket funerals. My best friend's mom when I was 15, and a former student who died of a drug overdose when he was 16 (this was four years ago).
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Yes, unfortunately. We had two family members pass away at home. I've been to open casket funerals as well - they kind of creep me out. I want to be cremated.
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Yes, mostly funerals. I in my older age try to avoid looking at the casket, I prefer to remember the person as I knew them in life. I am still haunted by the way my 8 year old cousin looked in her casket, it is an image that isI think I will carry with me for life instead of the energetic little girl I remember.
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Yes, aside from my grandfather who had an open casket I saw the body of:
a) someone that jumped off the top of a tunnel and onto the street
b) someone that got hit by a car at the crosswalk on my way home
c) the city morgue wheeling away a body they found in an apartment but the wind blew up the sheet and exposed the body.Never a dull moment in San Francisco!
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Yeah. Open casket funerals are pretty much the norm in my family. I don't think I want one. I am totally uncomfortable with the thought of being embalmed. I am also not really that keen on the idea of cremation, so I don't know!
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Yes, but they have all been in caskets at a funeral home. It doesn't bother me but I also don't particularly like the tradition of viewings.
I've never seen a dead body in any other context. I think that would freak me out.
(Edited) - Actually, I take that back. I've been to the "Bodies" exhibit and went to the morgue and scientific research facility when I took a forensics class.
I guess finding a dead body or seeing one on the streets would freak me out.
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Yes, my friend's dad, and a cousin of mine (he was only 15 and had a drug overdose....really sad) Both were open caskets
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I saw my Great Grandmother at her viewing... That didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.
I have also studied Criminalistics which means seriously studying dead bodies and wounds, only in pictures though... though the pictures were of real crimes and weren't at all PG. Some pretty insane stuff. It isn't for the light hearted.
I unfortunately also had to give CPR to a very obviously dead guy who killed himself in a jail I worked at. Didn't have a choice since I am not a MD and can't pronounce him... That was... gross.
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Quite a few at open casket funerals. They don't really bother me.
I did see the body of a man who was going down the sidewalk in his wheelchair...he apparently hit a curb, fell face-first into a big puddle & drowned. Eek. Very sad.
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@Mrs Hedgehog: OMG. I'd freak the eff out.
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Only viewings at funerals. Most recent one was a 2.5 year old little boy. It was one of my friends nephews. Just awful.
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@TemperanceBrennan: Oh yeah I've also seen the Bodies exhibit!
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@Mrs Hedgehog: Not to de-rail, but I remember a girl that came in as a suicide, obviously dead (shot herself) and still doing a full work up on her & the rt team doing cpr... it was really odd feeling!
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Some of these stories are terrible.
And I've only seen 2, though there was possibly a third.
The first two were open casket funerals, one of which was a good friend and I still don't know how I feel about it.
The possible third was a drowning on the beach when I was a teenager. I don't know for sure if the guy didn't make it,since they had to take him away in the ambulance, but I can't imagine he did. He'd been underwater for like 15 minutes before the found him, and he was completely blue.
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Yeah, but only at funerals thank goodness! The first was my grandpa when I was about 7-8 years old. I completely remember how he looked.
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Only at funerals.
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Yes. I've been to open casket funerals several times. My grandmother was buried in the dress she wore to my wedding, and while I love the pictures with her at my wedding, they now also give me flashbacks to her in her casket.
I've also seen dead bodies in my line of work (criminal law). I had to attend an autopsy once which was pretty gruesome.
Oh! And I took a class in high school that had a field trip to a funeral home and saw a body being made up for a funeral there too.
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Only at funerals.
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No, none.
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@BananaPancakes: My mom saw a drowning victim... on her birthday nonetheless! Her & my dad had just arrived when the police on their boat pulled up & asked my mom to watch the boat! almost an hour later they found the young man (just graduated hs) & literally dropped him at her feet in a body bag!
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Yes...I had to ID my mom. No one told me this was going to happen but apparently the coroner had waited a long time for the next of kin to ID her. Besides the obvious reasons, it was a shock since I hadn't seen her in decades so I was going on my vague memory of seeing her as a young child.
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I've seen many in part due to my previous job. I was a nurse on a med surg floor, also been to a few funerals. In nursing school we needed to shadow another nurse and the woman I found happened to be a clinical professor of an advanced nurse program. Well one day her class had to dissect a human body and she let me participate as well. That was one experience I will never ever forget. All in the name of science
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Several at open casket funerals (grandfather, girl from my HS, friend's mom), and my other grandfather at his home after he died before the funeral parlour picked up his body.
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Yes - at many family wakes.
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77 comments