Manned Up

 I know the mortuaries no longer do this for insurance reasons.....

But what ever happened to "Sitting up with the dead." 

I know I manned up and sat up with all my grandparents when other cousins would not. And I have dozens of cousins on both sides.

In the 70s, I say up with my grandfather ( Maternal, my paternal died before I was alive.) my Grandmothers both maternal and paternal. And I know I had dozens, literally, dozens of cousins on both side who would not do for fear, the grandparent would sit up.  

I do not know, even as a child I had no fear of dead people. I seriously considered at one time going to the Mortuary school McNeese State had in the 1970s. ( Perry, my brother did too)

But in the 1970s, when my grandparents died I was the first the volunteer to ( sit up with the dead.)  

It is a tradition that went back millennium, before embalming when people were not sure people were dead. 

Those of you reading this do not understand how spooky a funeral home is at 2AM. And generally, the person with you sitting up was " not quite right." 

It makes you wonder, what they thought of me? 

This is for my older readers.....Have you ever " Sat up with the dead?"