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Deep down I know I don't mind going going to Physical Threrapy in a town 20 miles away, because it gives me an excuse to eat at my favorite cafe there in the same town. Out of PT at noon; then head for the Sweet Magnolia.
Today I saw "Bob" the funeral home guy at the next table. Bob's the one who does the embalming and fixing up of the deceased--the guy everybody means when they look at the deceased and say "He sure did a good job." Here in the Deep South, in ground burials are de riguer. Cremation you rarely hear about.
Bob is a very intelligent person, but I usually avoid him because I know someday, if he outlives me, he will be the person to see my naked out of shape body lying on the cold slab of his establishment. I asked him how he was, and he said busy. I said you know, I made arrangements with your company NOT to be embalmed, and put in the ground in the plainest pine box as soon as possible, so don't let my daughter do anything more than that.
Then we got into talking about where the practice of embalming started. He said Joseph in the Bible. I said, maybe, but Joseph was living in Egypt with the Pharoahs, and that's where it started. He was telling me the basics of how they did it, but I watch National Geographic too, and know they used natron (A mineral hydrated sodium chloride, Greek, nitron, niter.)
But I forgot modern prservation techniques started with the Civil War when the dead were preserved with formadehyde so they could be sent home. (I'm sure other patrons around us would have preferred we clam up, but it's so enjoyable to talk to someone who's an expert in their profession.)
In Mississippi, you don't HAVE to be embalmed, you don't have to have a vault etc. I asked Bob where does the body fluids drained out go--they go into the city sewers and supposedly into a lagoon for treatment. Where is the lagoon?--Bob stumbled here. Oh, out thataway somewhere, he said, nodding his head. Uh huh. I bet they go out into the waterways like everything else, since Americans have made sewers out of our rivers.
I shook his hand as he was leaving, and Bob seem surprised. Something tells me he doesn't get that many handshakes.
Bye y'all, susil
