Bereavement due to traumatic death
Viewing the body
Many people hear about their relative's death from police at their door or when friends or relatives phone with the terrible news. Most people we talked to wanted to see their dead son, daughter, parent, partner or friend at once, but how soon they reached the hospital or the mortuary, and what happened next, varied greatly depending on how the person died and, to some extent, local practices.
Josefine and her husband Nicholas started the Natural Death Centre. After Nicholas died in a car crash she went to the hospital mortuary. She visited him for hours every day for three days.
Josefine chose to spend many hours with Nicholas in the hospital mortuary before the post-mortem. Friends and relatives also visited during these 3 days.
Josefine chose to spend many hours with Nicholas in the hospital mortuary before the post-mortem. Friends and relatives also visited during these 3 days.
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I don’t know how long we stayed actually, I think maybe two hours. And also we wanted, I wanted to touch Nicholas’s body, I didn’t want him with a wooden surround and covered up and everything and you know, it was only hours ago he was alive, so why shouldn’t I want to be with him now that he was dead? And the other thing is he… he looked remarkable, like my mother who died a few months later, of cancer actually and had only just been diagnosed three weeks before Nicholas died, she’d been diagnosed with cancer. She and Nicholas had this ecstatic look on their face, as if some orgasmic ecstasy had happened which also was a wonderful thing [laughter] you know, there wasn’t a scary impression, it was like an ecstatic expression on his face.
Were you left alone with him?
No we were all together but I actually, was I alone with him, but we went to see him for three days, every day.
You didn’t have to have a police officer there or?
No, no, no.
They left the family?
No they just left us [her and her friends], and also, yes. They made time for us, they were just so kind. I have one regret, that I didn’t bring a, I didn’t think of it, you know, [laughter] now I would think a little bit better, I know a lot more now, but I should have brought a record player with me to play his particular Hari Krishna music to him, which he used as a way of meditation every morning, dancing naked around his room learning poetry by heart. And this music is very beautiful and I just felt it would have been, you see this is the other thing, this is just me and again the coroner was so kind, there needed to be an autopsy but I didn’t want his body interfered with until… I felt ready to let him go and I said to him “Look we have Buddhists belief and we don’t want the body to be interfered with for three days” and he accepted it and so we had a sort of wake, for three days, we came every afternoon and spent , friends came also, spent time with his body in the room and you could feel his presence there. It was as if he was there in a way. And I left my scarf with his body somehow, because his head was bent backwards and I wanted it, and so I put my scarf under his head and by the third day I practically lay alongside this trolley with him, holding him, I was sort of getting used to, that his body was now cold and lifeless but was so familiar and, you know, it was important to be allowed to have that.
Jayne saw her husband soon after he died from stab wounds. She was allowed to stay with him in his room at the hospital for two or three hours. She was left alone and could talk to him, sing to him, and reassure him he wasn’t alone. The next day Jayne saw Jonathan in the mortuary. Viewing the body there felt very different.
The undertaker trusted Jayne not to ‘lose the plot’ and allowed her to spend time alone with Jon. She appreciated that, unlike the police, the undertaker treated her with respect and dignity. Partners and parents often felt they had to care for the person even after they had died. When Elizabeth heard that her daughter, Marni, had died in a car crash, she wanted to go to the mortuary straight away because she was sure there was ‘something she could do’.
Some coroners ask the coroner’s officer or another official to stay in the room while viewing the body takes place. These officials usually remain quietly in the background, but when Lisa went to identify her ex-boyfriend she was disturbed by police ‘chatting about irrelevant stuff’. She said she wanted some ‘quiet time’ with her friend without disturbing interruption.
Pat’s son died when riding his motor bike. She wanted to reach him as soon as possible. She bitterly regrets that she was not allowed to stay with her son in the mortuary without the coroner’s officer. Pat could not understand why she had to ask permission to see her son and that she could not wash and dress him. Peter’s son died in a car crash. Peter wasn’t allowed to touch Tim when he went to the mortuary.
Peter wanted to cuddle his son but was only allowed to see Tim's body from behind a glass screen in the mortuary.
Peter wanted to cuddle his son but was only allowed to see Tim's body from behind a glass screen in the mortuary.
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And when you got to the mortuary, you said that you weren’t, you had to look at him from behind a screen.
Yes, yes he had, Tim.
How did you feel about that?
No you want to pick him up and cuddle him.
Yes of course. Did they explain why you couldn’t?
Oh yes well in as much as they said that the only way that we can allow you to see him is through a glass screen he was in a bit of a pickle, they said, and we’ve tidied him up quite well. So he looks quite nice, you know.
Did she explain to you why you couldn’t have closer contact with him, if you wanted to touch him?
No not really, I don’t suppose, she may well have done, but it was quite clear that we could only see him from one side of a screen. and we accepted that really.
Was that very hard?
Well it was really, I mean all we wanted was, you know, you want to try and sort of bring him back to life because it was only a few hours ago, maybe there’s a way but I mean there obviously wasn’t, you know, it was several hours on but at the time you think you know, maybe if we could cuddle him back to life like, you know, but you can’t get that near, you can’t touch him and he’s there and you have to accept it. Part of accepting that Tim was dead really and we were then considering the fate of his friend and his friends family and what they must have been going through, you know.
There are no regulations about who is allowed to touch a dead body, but if a criminal offence is suspected most coroners will not allow the body to be touched before the first post-mortem in case evidence is lost. Some relatives feel upset that the body is treated as police property without regard to the feelings of the bereaved.
Viewing the body of the deceased may be delayed. Linda’s son Kevin was murdered and she was not allowed to even see his body for 24 hours. She had to wait until after the first post-mortem. She found this very hard to accept, though she said that on reflection perhaps the 24 hour delay, between seeing her son being rushed to theatre and seeing his body, allowed her to adjust to the shock of what had happened. When she did see him she was told she should not touch his body because lawyers would want a second post-mortem.
Ann was also ‘desperate’ to see her son after he was stabbed to death but like Linda she also had to wait a day before she could see him at the hospital.
Ann was allowed to see her son's body after about 24 hours, but was only allowed to touch his face, not to hug him.
Ann was allowed to see her son's body after about 24 hours, but was only allowed to touch his face, not to hug him.
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Did you, you saw him the next day?
Yes, we were allowed to go, the next day around about the same time. It was, I believe about five-ish. He’d been put in a little side room, and by that time my brother had arrived, we’d given my mother the news. We all went to the hospital the next day. We went in, I remember going in initially with Westley’s brother and sister, and sitting down and wanting to hug Westley, wanting to touch his hands. We weren’t allowed to do that again because of the forensics. I was allowed to touch his face, it was very striking because Westley’s eyes were open looking across, it appeared as if he was looking across the room. And he had the most distinctive smile on his face. Very distinctive. He looked very happy which is the strangest, strangest thing that I’ve ever witnessed, I, I’ve lost a number of relatives through natural causes, old age or illness, and although people look peaceful they’ve always looked quite categorically deceased. Westley didn’t. Westley looked very much alive that’s the thing that was so striking. He looked as if he’d at any moment he was going to say, “Boo, got you there!” Which would be the sort of prank you know he had a very huge personality and cheeky, cheeky way about him.
After the post-mortem and after the coroner has issued an interim death certificate most bodies are taken to a chapel of rest. Once there relatives can usually see the body as often as they wish. Occasionally a funeral director or family liaison officer will advise a family against viewing the body because of bodily injuries or because of decomposition. The family liaison officer, coroner’s officer or funeral director may tell people what to expect. Sometimes photographs of the dead person exist which relatives can be shown to give them an idea of what to expect. Some families do not want the body embalmed and so the body changes in appearance relatively quickly.
Sometimes the body of the deceased is brought home and may remain there until the funeral. This may lead to a problem if the weather is hot and if the funeral is many days later.
William saw his daughter at the hospital soon after her death. After the post-mortem, two days later, the undertaker brought her home. Lauren lay in her own room in an open coffin until the funeral.
William saw his daughter at the hospital soon after her death. After the post-mortem, two days later, the undertaker brought her home. Lauren lay in her own room in an open coffin until the funeral.
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And so I asked the policeman “Was her body very badly damaged?” And he said, “No she’s not too bad looking.” So I asked could I see her, and the police and the hospital staff took me towards this room, I think it was marked, resuscitation unit, and her Mummy was outside the resuscitation unit already and so they took us in together, and there was the shape of a body underneath a white sheet, on basically a slab, , and right up until that point I was hoping that perhaps there’d been some type of mistaken identification, and that it wasn’t Lauren, and but then they dropped the white sheet from her head and I looked, and sure enough it was Lauren.
I’m so sorry.
Thank you. She didn’t look too bad, she had sort of a 2” gash, in this part of her head, exposing her skull, but apart from that she looked as if she should be alive, and in fact I put my hand on her leg and her leg was still twitching.
And did your son go and see her too?
No he didn’t go and see her at, in the hospital. He stayed outside the room, at that time, I think it was probably the right thing to do because he’d enough to deal with on that day, but when her body was brought back to the house two days later after the post- mortem he certainly went down and had his final moments.
You had her brought home?
Oh yes, yes, and in a strange way, you know there was a certain excitement about her body coming home. I think for, for the first number of days and indeed weeks, it doesn’t sink in that this person has gone forever. And so when the undertaker said that you know on the, I think it was on the Thursday morning, the accident happened on Tuesday it was on the Thursday morning the undertaker said he was bringing her home, it suddenly it wasn’t so bad, and it was nice to have her home and in her room, and , came the time of the funeral, and it was an all, it was, when it came time for the funeral it was with great reluctance actually that you know we were parting with her again as it were.
But the funeral was on the Friday. I remember that one, you know there was a couple of wee things happened in the lead up to the funeral, that are just awkward, but obviously it’s a very awkward situation anyway. Firstly, I mean this is, this was in the summer of 2005, and having an open coffin in the summer, by the time it was the morning of her funeral there was a distinct smell of death in the room, which was not pleasant. There was some relatives wanted to, who went to the room and see her, and others didn’t, and that’s fair enough.
William asked the police what his daughter’s body looked like before he made the decision to see her. The decision is not always easy, but people who chose to do so often wanted to take this last chance to say good-bye and some said it helped them to accept that the person had really died. Some were relieved to see that the person had a peaceful expression on their face or that they looked as if they were sleeping.
When Dorrie was killed, Ian and his family were initially told that they could only go in to see him two at a time, but they decided that it was important to them to go in together.
Ian and his family went to see Dorrie soon after he was shot. Ian was glad that his brother looked at peace. Seeing the body helped Ian to accept that he had died.
Ian and his family went to see Dorrie soon after he was shot. Ian was glad that his brother looked at peace. Seeing the body helped Ian to accept that he had died.
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I then prepared to go to the hospital. And when I arrived at the hospital most of my family had already, in fact all my family were there, sisters, brothers, some of my brother’s close friends were there. And we were told that we couldn’t see him straight away, and that we’d have to wait. There was a number of police at the hospital at the time, and one of my older sisters came in and said that they’d told us that we were only allowed to go in in two’s, we’d only be allowed to go in in two’s, and we didn’t want that, we wanted to go in as a family.
But they were refusing to allow us to go in as a family. They wanted us to go in two’s, and this was very, very, I remember very difficult for us at the time, and my Mum was very as always, is very direct in making her feelings known. And it served us well in this particular case because she insisted that we all were going to go in as a family. And she told the nurses and the police that we were all going in together, and no-one argued with her.
And as a family we went in, as a family we walked in together.
So we were all together, we all walked in, my family. Aunts were there, my Aunties were there, and a number, my Aunties, some of my Aunties had arrived, my sisters, my siblings and some of his friends were there, and we all walked in together and he was just laying there as though he was sleeping, you know he was, just sleeping, and so still, and so at peace, you know, I hadn’t seen my brother looking so peaceful, ever since he was a baby really. Because I was, I’m 10 years older than him so I do remember him being a baby and for me he just looked like such, you know his face had such peace, and for me that was very comforting.
It was comforting was it?
It was comforting yeah, it was comforting to see that and to experience the feeling of this person looking at least at peace, a calmness over him, and a stillness in him.
Were you allowed to touch him?
We were. We were allowed, we weren’t, well I think, we were not allowed to touch him, however people, did touch him. We were told that we weren’t allowed to touch him but my mother again was not accepting that, and she touched him quite a lot. She rubbed him, she kissed him, hugged him, held him, she did everything that she felt she needed to do. For me that was not something I wanted to do, personally. I felt that just seeing him was enough for me, and I did not touch him.
So seeing him, the most important thing was to see him at peace? Were there any other reasons why it helped you to see him?
To accept it, to accept it. Until I saw him he was still alive as far as, even though I’d been told he was he was dead, it was important for me to go and see him, because it would confirm to me that this was the truth, this was something that I had to accept. And seeing him, for me, was very, very necessary, to conclude that he has gone.
Some people regretted seeing the body of the person they loved; others wished they had been better prepared by the police, mortuary attendant or undertaker. Jocelyn was given a description of his son’s body by the mortuary attendant and decided not to view. Sally identified her mother, who was badly burnt in a fire, (see Identifing the body). She saw her again at the funeral home but deeply regretted seeing her mother on both occasions because she didn't look as she did in life. She found it hard to believe that anyone looks peaceful in death but others recalled calm, even euphoric, expressions.
Circumstances sometimes did not allow people to view their relative’s body. Cynthia was not allowed to see her daughter’s body, perhaps because of her daughter’s severe head injuries. Looking back she said that she would have liked to have known this at the time and at least have had the opportunity to have held her daughter’s hand.
Rachel very much wanted to see her son’s body but her husband and daughter both decided not to, preferring to remember him as he had been when alive. For similar reasons Michael also decided he did not want to see his son’s body in the funeral parlour.
Last reviewed October 2015.
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