It is a spine-chilling job which they earn a living from — seeing and handling dead people everyday. OWN CORRESPONDENT
While most people are afraid of seeing dead bodies, morticians relax, feed and make phone calls while seated next to them in mortuaries.
In an interview with NewsDay, morticians who operate in the capital were reluctant to respond to questions about their scary jobs citing its secretive nature.
The few who responded could not reveal much.
“My duty is to beautify the dead,” a mortician from Marondera, who identified herself as Linnet said.
“Embalming is either 100% or zero. It cannot be 99%. A dirty carpet or scratched casket can be changed, but if you botch the job, you cannot tell the family you’re going to replace the body. I enjoy it. It is like a hobby to me. I know many people despise us, but that’s our job,” she bragged.
Another mortician, Luke Nziramasanga, who works at a local funeral parlour, said he had no option but to become a mortician after failing to become an engineer.
“It was not my first choice, but when I got into it, I found out I was good at it. I grew up with the passion of becoming an engineer, but I failed. To earn a living, I had to try other things. I have been in this parlour since 2002. At first it was hell in a cell, but I had to adapt.
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“Death knows no vacation; so everyday I work on more than five corpses which need to be washed, dressed and embalmed,” he said.
He said he does not believe in the existence of ghosts, witches or evil spirits.
“I have never encountered a ghost and sometimes while working on night shift I sleep beside corpses,” he said.
Nziramasanga said his worst moment is when he has to deal with bodies of people who die from road accident.
“It is very scary and pitiful to deal with bodies of people who die from accidents be it road or fire. The body will be badly injured and sometimes dismembered,” he said.
“The life of a mortician is very complicated because we deal with people’s emotions and make money out of their loss.
“People come to us at the moment when they are most vulnerable and in need of comfort,” he said.
However, people who spoke to NewsDay described morticians as brave people, but all of them said they would never join the bandwagon.
“Those guys who work in mortuaries and funeral parlours must earn a lot of money because of the type of job. Dealing with dead bodies requires a lot, but I won’t join the wagon,” said Ruwarashe Mhiripiri from Budiriro.
Another social commentator, Thembalami Mabhoko, defended morticians saying the job was not really easy due to the varying nature of bodies they handle on a daily basis.
“It’s a job for the firm hearted because our African tradition respects the death of a human being,” he said.
Mabhoko added that there was some natural strength those people get which gives them the power to handle dead bodies, including those of people who die in bizarre incidents.
“In our local tradition, we know that if someone dies in bitterness, the person might give a difficult time to people who handle the body, but this does not happen to morticians,” he added.
Death knows no vacation; so every day I work on more than five corpses which need to be washed, dressed and embalmed.
