When I saw a book titled All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work, I immediately pre-ordered a copy.
Hayley Campbell threw herself straight into a world filled with life's darkest moments. Nothing was off limits. The first chapter has her holding hands with a dead man while the mortuary workers change his clothes. She meets with everyone from funeral home directors to embalmers, executioners to crime scene cleaners, death mask sculptors, crematorium operators, gravediggers, even bereavement midwives.
It's gruesome and intriguing to read about the people who often go unnoticed until a tragedy strikes. It seems the one thing they have in common is wanting to ease the pain of the families still living. Each person has their own limits when it comes to what they can handle. The author had a traumatic experience while writing this book and can't seem to shake the image from her head. Even I have chapters that I know are going to stick with me. Like I said, nothing is off limits in this book. There are cancer diagnoses, suicides, child deaths, every kind of death is mentioned in this book and it goes into immense detail.
One thing the author set out to do was ease the idea of death. For many of us, myself included, the fear of the unknown or the beyond is worrisome. But I'll say, reading about the way these people treat the dead makes all the difference. Their jobs are only needed during the worst parts of our lives. They know families need closure in different ways and most of them are fully prepared to ease your pain without a second thought.
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