A New Experience

A week or so ago I had an unique experience. I became a grave digger and a hearse driver. There was a very sick man some people found at the railroad station. Nobody knew him, where he came from, how he got there, and no one was taking care of him. So the hospital driver got him and brought him to the hospital. Within a short time, a day or so, the man died. His body was placed in the mortuary. But being he had no known family his body was left there. For 2 weeks his body sat, while the police investigated to see if they could find family. Nobody was found. The thing was that the smell of the body was getting pretty strong because power had been off and on a number of times and also our refrigerator was not made for long term storage. Finally the police let the hospital bury the body.
Grave diggers were needed; so I volunteered. Talk about hot. There was seven of us each taking turns digging and picking. The ground at the graveyard was terribly hard and rocky, but eventually we dug a hole 2 feet across and over 5 feet down. It took probably four hours to dig. The sun was strong and I got sunburned bad; also I am not in very good grave digging shape.
After we returned to the hospital we found out I was the only driver around. The rest all had programs to do. SO I was asked to drive the Lorie to transport the body to the grave we dug. The Lories batteries are not good these days so I had to have many people help me start the thing. They pushed and I popped the clutch and the thing fired up. We drove to the hospital where the others we all gowned up and ready to prepare the body for transport. The smell was quite strong as they opened the frig. The body was then wrapped in a blanket and then in a piece of plastic. The body was then loaded on to the truck and everyone piled in the back. I proceeded down the road till I had to stop and make a turn. That is where things went bad. I accidentally stalled the truck and being the batteries were dead; it would not start. The guys had to push me again. The thing was the truck would not start right away. I don't know why, but they ended up pushing me a quarter of a mile. All the time the body in the back. Finally the truck started, and we headed to the graveyard. I did apologize many times for that one unexpected happening. When we arrived, I left the truck running and the guys started peeling the bark off of the trees to use as ropes to lower the body in the hole. Finally everything was ready and he was lowered in. The Chaplain went along with us; he said a prayer and then we took turns filling the hole back in. After doing that we all went back to the hospital. I have never done anything like that before. The man is buried in an unmarked grave and no one even knows what his name is.