A Small Case of Rescue Work.

petal34 wrote:

Left Behind wrote:

KatyKing wrote: Near enough fresh from school and very wet behind the ears. On our second day of training we had to attend the mortuary to observe an autopsy. Work experience counted for something back in 68. Mind you that was the Army Medical Corps and we were told at the end after half a dozen trainees had fled the morgue never to be seen again that they did it to weed out the squeamish. Worked too!

I had a law school classmate who tried unsuccessfully to become an FBI agent. He told me that one thing they did was to hand him a revolver - allegedly, to test his gripping strength - and tell him that they were going to time him to see how many times he could pull the trigger in one minute.

I asked him if he broke the action open to see if the gun was loaded. He told me no, that he just started pulling the trigger.

I told him that he flunked the test the instant he pulled the trigger. I told him that if for some reason they really wanted to measure his gripping strenght, there are devices that can do that accurately: that they were really observing him to see whether he was scared of the gun, and whether he was careful with the gun: and that anyone who looked frightened when they handed it to him, OR who pulled the trigger without checking to see that it was unloaded, flinked the test.

It was interesting to see the "Oh, S#$T!" look on his face while he tried to convince me and himself otherwise!

Jim

I can imagine,Jim.
I would have ran for my life.....

petal34 wrote:

KatyKing wrote:Mrs K shares this one.
She went to a funeral of a work colleague. One of attenders fancied herself as a bit of a tarot card and tea leaf reader always benging on about her 'mystical powers' at work. They come out from crem and are looking at flowers. One arrangement is shaped like a cat. 'Psychic' gushes... 'I just knew she would get a cat arrangement. I saw it clearly in the cards just last night. It's what she would have wanted'.
Hearing this the funeral director comes over and tells her non too quietly. 'Those tributes are from the previous service madam... this committals flowers are over there'. [no cat flowers to be seen]. Lesley [Mrs K] says someone approached her concerned she was sobbing when in fact she was shaking with suppressed giggles over what had been said. Deceased, who Mrs K knew well, hated cats with a passion being allergic to cat hair.

I can well imagine that. Remember when Ken and I went to arrange our funeral.
I 'threatened' him with the most dire punishment if he put his foot in it.
Out came the book with the coffins in,I held my breath!

He took one look at the coffins then the prices!
Shoved the book away and told her 'Haven't you got any cardboard coffins for free?'
Then to me 'Haven't you got a few of those blue council bags left?'
The funeral director broke down in laughter.

Now this is an example of his sense of humour.
After he passed,I received a message from the spiritualist church,very good medium there that evening.
I was told 'he is telling me you will see him this Saturday evening'.

On the Friday of that week,I received a message to tell me that Ken's ashes had arrived from the crem.
I picked them up and felt quite sick!
Where was my lovely 6ft hubby,this wasn't him in a box,was the thoughts going through my mind.

I had made promises to send some of his ashes to his family and was also taking some to Australia to scatter at the war memorial in Melbourne.
So decided to do that awful job on the coming Saturday evening.
All prepared,I laid a white sheet on the counter top and sorted the boxes out.
As I picked up something to ladle the ashes into boxes,it struck me what the medium had told.

The language was terrible!
I was seeing him alright......
That was Ken's sense of humour,gritty but funny.
But he is now where he wanted to be.....Melbourne,spread over the surf in Brisbane,with his family and buried in the back garden of our home and some which will always be with me.
When my time comes.....he will pay for all this......

Left Behind wrote:

petal34 wrote:

KatyKing wrote:Mrs K shares this one.
She went to a funeral of a work colleague. One of attenders fancied herself as a bit of a tarot card and tea leaf reader always benging on about her 'mystical powers' at work. They come out from crem and are looking at flowers. One arrangement is shaped like a cat. 'Psychic' gushes... 'I just knew she would get a cat arrangement. I saw it clearly in the cards just last night. It's what she would have wanted'.
Hearing this the funeral director comes over and tells her non too quietly. 'Those tributes are from the previous service madam... this committals flowers are over there'. [no cat flowers to be seen]. Lesley [Mrs K] says someone approached her concerned she was sobbing when in fact she was shaking with suppressed giggles over what had been said. Deceased, who Mrs K knew well, hated cats with a passion being allergic to cat hair.

I can well imagine that. Remember when Ken and I went to arrange our funeral.
I 'threatened' him with the most dire punishment if he put his foot in it.
Out came the book with the coffins in,I held my breath!

He took one look at the coffins then the prices!
Shoved the book away and told her 'Haven't you got any cardboard coffins for free?'
Then to me 'Haven't you got a few of those blue council bags left?'
The funeral director broke down in laughter.

Now this is an example of his sense of humour.
After he passed,I received a message from the spiritualist church,very good medium there that evening.
I was told 'he is telling me you will see him this Saturday evening'.

On the Friday of that week,I received a message to tell me that Ken's ashes had arrived from the crem.
I picked them up and felt quite sick!
Where was my lovely 6ft hubby,this wasn't him in a box,was the thoughts going through my mind.

I had made promises to send some of his ashes to his family and was also taking some to Australia to scatter at the war memorial in Melbourne.
So decided to do that awful job on the coming Saturday evening.
All prepared,I laid a white sheet on the counter top and sorted the boxes out.
As I picked up something to ladle the ashes into boxes,it struck me what the medium had told.

The language was terrible!
I was seeing him alright......
That was Ken's sense of humour,gritty but funny.
But he is now where he wanted to be.....Melbourne,spread over the surf in Brisbane,with his family and buried in the back garden of our home and some which will always be with me.
When my time comes.....he will pay for all this......

I commend both of you for making the necessary arrangements in advance: something I've been trying to convince everyone to do, ever since my wife died.

My name, birth date, and a photo image of the two of us are already on her/our tomb.

You'd find it interesting how people are buried in New Orleans: generally above ground, and in vaults located inside tombs, or mausoleums. The body goes inside a wooden coffin - no metal casket - which deteriorates, over time, along with the body.

Given the high temperatures here, I guess you could say that it's rather like being cremated, albeit more slowly.

Jim

KatyKing wrote:Lovely stories all. Arran Pilot are first early seed potatoes. They should be ready to lift in about eight weeks. Next to go in are second earlies then main crop. If weather holds and we don't get blight we then have spuds all through the year. I aim to plant four times more of everything than we need. Old rhyme for sowing...
One for the slug. One for the crow. One to die and one to grow.
That was sound evidence from that medium petal.
Funerals for us hopefully sorted as both in union 'burial club' a sort of pre payment plan. I'm very much of the bin bag or cardboard coffin persuasion. It'll only be dust.

KatyKing wrote:That plus inflation Jim from a penny in petal's experience to ten pence in mine.
I kid you not, I have a grand daughter called Charon. Her mum [ex daughter in law] thought it classier than Sharon.
We should all get to name our own parents.

KatyKing wrote: Can never guarantee crops will do well. Too many variables and every year is different. Can guarantee we'll each of us be reunited with loved ones gone before though, that's an unshakeable and unchangeable fact.
Psalm 77 v 6
I call to remembrance my song and in the night I commune with my own heart and search out my spirits.

KatyKing wrote:I do hope he comes round petal. Either way he's in for a lovely reunion one of these days.
Such a comfort is spiritualism and such a shame that more don't come to see that whilst still on this side. But....
'Alle shall be welle
and alle shall be welle
and alle manner of thynge shall be welle.'

Julian of Norwich [top medium]

KatyKing wrote:I do hope he comes round petal. Either way he's in for a lovely reunion one of these days.
Such a comfort is spiritualism and such a shame that more don't come to see that whilst still on this side. But....
'Alle shall be welle
and alle shall be welle
and alle manner of thynge shall be welle

Julian of Norwich [top medium]

Left Behind wrote:And all that walking helped him to live long.

KatyKing wrote:Lot of Greenwoods and Greenhalghes round Pendle way petal. Might you have Lancashire ancestors ?

KatyKing wrote:A fine heritage

Wes wrote:

Left Behind wrote:And all that walking helped him to live long.

One of his personal goals was to die with no more than ten pounds to his name, and that's exactly what he did. I'd like to see church leaders today make a promise to themselves like that...

KatyKing wrote:Lot of Greenwoods and Greenhalghes round Pendle way petal. Might you have Lancashire ancestors ?

KatyKing wrote:Lots of spiritualists and allsorts even these days around Pendle. It's where the Lancashire Witches hailed from (no aspersions cast or implied petal)