New Taipei City-based Chen Hsuan-yu (陳宣妤), 23, has chosen a profession that defies stereotypes: She is an assistant mortician.
Chen took courses on funerary practices, funerary services and management courses for funeral homes at Aletheia University’s Department of Religious Culture and Organization Management. She chose her career after being an intern at Taipei Municipal Second Funeral Parlor, where she learned how to dress and cosset bodies, and she has worked there ever since.
“I just wanted to try it out and after discovering that I was neither afraid nor repulsed by the job, I chose to make mortuary work my full-time job,” Chen said.
It was a rough start, with many embarrassing moments, she said.
Newer bodies often release gas postmortem as the body relaxes, which makes it seem as if they are hiccuping or farting, Chen said, adding that she was startled the first time it happened and thought the body was possessed, but later learned from senior colleges that such incidents are natural.
Being shorter — she is just 1.6m tall — than her colleagues, Chen said it is sometimes difficult moving bodies that are taller and sometimes two to three times heavier than she is.
It is always more difficult if the body has had its limbs removed or is delivered in an incomplete state, Chen said, adding that she exercises extra caution when moving bodies, out of respect for the deceased.
It is a difficult job that often demands time away from family, but it is well worth it to be able to bring dignity to the deceased during their last journey from this life, Chen said.
“Many have asked me whether it is frightening to work at a funeral parlor, or whether there are supernatural incidents,” Chen said, adding that she has not come across anything mysterious.
“If one faces the deceased with due reverence, and their family with due humility, I think even the spirits and deities would be hard-pressed to find fault with you,” she said.
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