mortuarymind

[mortuarymind]

one of the saddest things is when someone in your family tells you you would've loved someone who died before you were born. like my mother has told me & my best friend that we would have loved talking to her father. that me & my brothers have the same humor as our late uncle & even look like him. everyone is everywhere & nowhere & here & gone & dying & coming back. it's as though you know them through their shadow or their ghost or your own actions, but you won't ever really know. haunts me, i guess

[mortuarymind]

My grandfather and my godfather (a beloved neighbor and dear family friend) had a long standing bet- for one dollar- about who would die first. Both of them being slightly pessimistic (in the funny way), they both insisted that they themselves would be the first to die. Any time my grandfather had a health scare, he’d gleefully call up my godfather to boast that he’d be passing “any day now” and he was sure to win the bet. It was a big family joke and they were always amiably sparring and comparing notes about who was in worse shape, medically speaking.

When my grandfather was in hospice care dying of liver cancer, my godfather was quite ill also. It took him great effort to make the journey to see his dying friend. As he came into the room, supported by a family member, he shuffled to my grandpa’s bedside and silently handed him a dollar bill. He was ceding his loss of the bet, as they both knew who was going first. My grandpa had been in quite bad shape for a while and was no longer able to speak but let me tell you he snatched that dollar with unexpected strength and literally laughed aloud. He knew exactly what the gesture meant and he couldn’t help but find the humor within the grief. It was the last time any of us heard my grandpa laugh, as he passed shortly after.

When I talk about my appreciation for “dark humor” I’m not so much thinking about edgy jokes, but rather the human instinct to somehow, impossibly, both find and appreciate the absurdity that is so often folded into the profound grief of life and death. When I tell this story I think it kind of perturbs people sometimes, but it’s honestly one of my favorite memories about two men I really deeply admired. I could never hope for anything more than for my loved ones to remember me laughing until the very end, and taking joy in a little joke as one of my final acts.

[mortuarymind]

Carved ivory memento mori, Europe, 17th century

from The British Museum

[mortuarymind]

Skeleton with Flowers by Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889)

[mortuarymind]

'man in bloom' by bruce metcalf, 2001 in corporal identity body language: 9th triennial for form + content, usa + germany - museum of arts + design (2004)

[mortuarymind]

Carrie (1976) dir. Brian De Palma The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme Se7en (1995) dir. David Fincher Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) dir. Raja Gosnell Zodiac (2007) dir. David Fincher Jennifer's Body (2009) dir. Karyn Kusama The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) dir. David Fincher Paranorman (2012) dir. Sam Fell, Chris Butler Last Night in Soho (2021) dir. Edgar Wright

[mortuarymind]

Roe deer 🦌

[mortuarymind]

it was 6:50am when I took these pictures and the place was empty!! I always try to go to a coffee shop near my school if I have early class just to go through my notes because the air is cold and the streets are empty and the coffee is delicious

[mortuarymind]

Funeral of the Punk by Daria Egorova

This artist on Instagram

[mortuarymind]

Godland (2022) | dir. Hlynur Pálmason

[mortuarymind]

In honor of Day of the Dead, here’s a repost of my comic about the San Francisco Columbarium and the man who spent 26 years restoring it.

This comic originally appeared on Medium at The Nib. Go check out my other work there.

[mortuarymind]

Samuel Araya, ‘Death and the Labyrinth’, 2016 Source

[mortuarymind]

The Mirror-Faced Grim Reaper in Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), dir. Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

“This film is endowed with an acute sense of restlessness and alienation; reflecting this uncanny estrangement in the doubling, tripling and quadrupling of its central character, and in its cyclic narrative, a structure that seems condemned to repetition. Why is the hooded Death figure constructed as a kind of mirror? Are we dealing with Nietzsche’s notion of ‘eternal return’? (…) You could go on forever about the meaning buried in this particular work. It invites and eludes analysis.” – CINEMA AND DREAM-LOGIC IN MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON

[mortuarymind]

I have an end-of-life patient to whom I spoke today. She burst out laughing and said, "It was all such fun. I just had so much fun." I wish this for everyone. I wish that we each would meet death laughing, with little regret and even less fear.

[mortuarymind]

[ 11.09.23 ]

law school set up has my 2015 studyblr pinterest heart screaming

[mortuarymind]

Hello Again

We're gonna call this take 2 on this blog I started to track my Mortuary Science journey! I just had a great meeting with my program director to find out the steps I need to take in order to practice in New York once I've graduated. It may seem silly but having meetings like that and laying the groundwork for my future always gives me a little confidence boost. I love this profession so much and I cannot wait to continue my education and meet more people on the same path.

I will be posting a lot more on here, including info from the Natural Body Conference I was able to attend in March. It was such a beautiful and informative experience. I can't believe I had the opportunity to see Katrina Spade talk about her work.

[mortuarymind]