As an eight-year-old, Kevin Sinclair would fetch the Hoover from the chapel beneath the family flat, see dead bodies in coffins and carry on. "They were just sleeping," he says casually. "That's what my parents would tell me." What the average person would have considered macabre, he saw as normal and merely a matter of getting used to.
And after getting used to it, he followed his father into the funeral business and became an embalmer, a job he has been doing for 22 years. He co-founded the Feltham-based London School of Embalming in 2006, where he embalms and teaches.
A typical day starts with a delivery, but not your standard postal influx. Around eight to 10 bodies released from hospitals, nursing homes or private residences arrive ready for the embalming to begin. During the week, he teaches as he embalms. Under supervision, students have the opportunity to learn the craft with the deceased.
In layman's terms, the practice comes down to a trinity process of "sanitation, preservation and presentation". Once the body is washed, the deceased are then injected through the arterial system with a formaldehyde-based fluid which is used as a preservative as it plasticises the tissues.
The presentational aspect of the procedure is an area a lot of aspiring embalmers mistakenly hope to specialise in, but Sinclair says: "In the UK you have to train in all areas, you cannot specialise to only be a mortician."
Personality is more important than academic prowess for would-be embalmers. Although having a set of GCSEs is essential, an average C grade will do. To get a place at embalming school you will need to get through an interview. This is designed to "get a sense of the person's mental attitude because it can be traumatic", Sinclair says. And after passing a foundation exam which includes a mix of maths and English questions organised by the British Institute of Embalmers, the student begins a two-year course.
An art background will see you a long way; a creative flair teamed with a strong stomach is ideal. Inevitably, Sinclair has seen it all. As a former stonemason his creative skills allow him to restore dismembered bodies, with the aid of a photograph, to a fully identifiable condition. From burns to car accident victims, he uses a special facial wax to rebuild tissues and, if needed, reattach bodily features such as ears. Despite his life-long services to the profession, he is met with a challenge "every day, every day" he repeats. "No two deceased are the same. You have to rectify the situation like a puzzle."
Sinclair displays a very practical but reverential disposition about the procedure. However, he admits that having to embalm children or friend's relatives can be an emotional challenge: "You start associating the love you give your own family to the deceased."
In the embalming room, it's a solo job: Sinclair, the deceased and background music. What does an embalmer listen to? "What do you think, organ music or something?" he roars with laughter. "It's either the radio or my iPod." Being the high-pressure job it is, water-cooler conversations don't exist. The only time he can have a therapeutic discussion about work is during meetings with fellow embalmers where, he says, "you can talk and be understood". It is not a conversation starter at the dinner table.
Word-of-mouth is the gateway to progressing as an embalmer. Once qualified you need to be recommended. With Sinclair's catalogue of contacts in the industry, "people will contact me with an opportunity in an area for an embalmer to start", which gets passed on to students nearing the end of the course.
Jobs can take you across Britain and beyond for a "mini-adventure". Sinclair has provided his services from Afghanistan to the Falklands. Within close proximity to Heathrow he has a "flight-ready kit" for repatriation and rescue operations.
Among the job's many eccentricities are the outfits the deceased have chosen to be dressed in. From the bizarre to the sentimental, Sinclair has adorned people in Father Christmas outfits, cycling gear with aerodynamic speed hats, biker's leathers, and clown costumes. One request was particularly special: "A woman had asked to be put in her wedding dress, made out of parachute silk from the second world war."
It is not a lucrative profession – the average embalmer earns between £18,000 and £27,000 – but the rewards are far richer. The feedback from grieving families who value the achievement of dignifying the deceased with a sense of peace is the mark of a job well done.
Thursday 25 April 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/apr/25/how-become-embalmer
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