Saturday Morning Surprise

Our secretary will be going on vacation next week. If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that when she's gone I'm the secretary, so to speak. Well, Monday is my day off, but guess who has to work it again? To offset that bit of bad news, I took off Friday after lunch. I knew when I left we had a body in the prep room, and that there would be a visitation. I just didn't know when. This morning I check in on the body and was surprised to see that no one had done anything since the embalming was accomplished. Cavity treatment, closing the incision, bathing...nothing had been done. Then I see in the obits the visitation is tomorrow. So I immediately started doing what I could. I removed all the medical tubes still inserted, glue the incision shut, wash the hair, bath the body, pack her (stuff cotton in the leaking orifice until it no longer leaks), and even put polish on her fingernails. The owner came over around lunch with the clothing, and we got her dressed, casketed and cosmetized. Tomorrow morning I'll take her over to the other location (the funeral home we recently acquired) and get ready for the visitation. The service is Monday morning, followed by burial at the National Cemetery. There is a limo, but since I'm acting secretary, I'll be exempt from working this funeral.