Sublime

Protocol in the funeral industry says that one person may go alone to pick up bodies from hospitals, nursing homes, and the coroner’s office, but a team of two people must pick up a person who died at home. When a house call came in, I was to be Chris’s number two.

In peacetime he seemed like a typical reserved clubland type, with a carnation in the buttonhole and smooth suede gloves. In uniform he was ‘slight, dapper full colonel with a small moustache’.

We needed the cremation chambers stone cold in the morning to accommodate our larger men and women. Without a cold chamber, the flesh would burn up too quickly, going up the smokestack in thick, dark puffs, potentially summoning the fire department. People with additional body fat (such as the zaftig Mrs. Greyhound) were cremated first, while

I have the impression that priests maintain their way of walking even without collars on.