No Last Office For The Deceased
Laying Out or Last Offices for The Deceased is the companion guide to this article.
It may be your wish or the specific request of the deceased that the body should not to be attended to in any way after death.
No Last Office For The Deceased
If this is the case then clearly the body needs to be coffined with little delay. So your first task is to order the coffin as soon as possible.
If you are in immediate need of help or advice on purchasing a coffin then please call The Natural Death Centre Helpline who will be able to help you. Tel: 0871 288 2098
Depending upon your circumstances and how you feel about certain aspects of the task there are several options that are worth giving your consideration.
Purely for ease of writing, throughout this guide "the deceased" is respectfully referred to as "the body".
Direct to coffin
The easiest thing to do at this time and in this scenario is to place the body directly into a coffin as soon as it arrives; the following account is an example of how you might achieve this.
If you already have a prepared coffin:
Once death has occurred and the body muscles begin to relax themselves the body may void itself of waste. This doesn't happen every time and may not in your case, but if it does this is quite normal and should not be such a big issue in this situation because the body will be coffined as soon as possible, though you may wish to clean up any soiling first.
Leave the body where it is resting (presumably on a bed), undisturbed and as natural in death.
Place the coffin next to and close to the bed the correct way round (head to head). If possible place the coffin on some strong supports that will lift the coffin to just below Try to avoid positioning the coffin with the top edge above the height of the mattress as this will make it a little more difficult for you when lifting the body into the coffin the height of the mattress that the body is on, if that's not possible then at least place the coffin on something that will lift it off the floor sufficiently enough for people to get their hands under when it comes to lifting it.
Placing the body into the coffin
Pull the body on the sheet to the edge of the bed next to the coffin, fold both sides of the sheet over the body leaving loose ends at the head and feet, these can then be twisted round to grip onto for lifting, with one person gripping each end lift the body slightly, take a second or two to judge and anticipate the weight then carefully swing the body over the open coffin and gently lower it into the coffin, the body will sag a little in the middle but there's not really anything you can do about that.
Once the body is positioned in the coffin then lay or tuck the ends of the sheet in and close the coffin using the fixings that came with it.
If you are awaiting delivery of a coffin
In this case we would like to suggest you take either one of two measures, the first is to just leave the body where it is until the coffin arrives and then proceed as described above.
If it is going to be longer than 24 to 36hrs before delivery of the coffin then you should seriously consider cooling the body by using the methods described in the guide Last Offices for the Deceased, the relevant section to read is towards the end of the guide.
Shroud
The other option is to wrap the body in a cotton sheet or blanket Traditionally shrouds are made from natural fiberes such as wool, linen, cotton and silk but really any form of sheet material will be ok. as a fully enclosed shroud.
There is really only one method of enclosing a body in a shroud In this instance the type of shroud referred to is not the white long sleeved type of gown that is often seen in movies and old Victorian photographs. and it involves a combination of maneuvering and rolling the body, this is definitely a two person task and you will also need to have good access all around the body.
To help avoid any possible purging try to keep the head higher than the rest of the body, this is bound to be difficult at times but do the best that you can and if necessary just clean up as you go along.
With the body at one side of the bed lay the sheet flat out in a square shape on the bed, one end of the sheet will naturally cover the body, if the sheet is a rectangle shape then lay it out with the longest side of the sheet going across the bed and the body.
Take the section of the sheet that is covering the body and without lifting the body tuck this section of sheet concertina style as far as possible under the body, it won't matter if it bunches up just get as much as you can of the loose sheet that is not laid on the bed under the body.
Roll the body just once onto the sheet, before continuing ensure the body is laid flat and straight with the legs together and arms at the side or positioned across the body, now take the section of sheet that was tucked under the body and bring this over the body to enclose it, then tuck the remainder of that section under the body, at this stage you should have half the sheet still laid out on the bed and the over half tightly enclosing the body.
If you would like to leave the ends Head and feet. of the sheet out in order to assist with carrying then roll the body once more into the sheet making sure it stays fairly tight.
Try to judge it so that the finished edge of the sheet doesn't end up under the body but rather to the front of, or slightly to one side or the other, close the sheet by either taping, sewing or pinning the edge of the sheet down, you can if you wish use ribbon or string to tightly tie off either end of the sheet in order to form the grips.
An alternative method is to start off the sheet diagonally; this would give you longer sheet grips but of course means a lot more rolling of the body.
If you would prefer not to leave grips This is generally the neatest and most favoured method of enclosing a body in a shroud but you may find the sheet grips more useful than the aesthetics then just half roll the body from the back onto the front and fold the corners of the sheet in towards the body to form an envelope shape and roll the body back over onto the back, continue as above.
Try to keep the room as cool as possible until the coffin arrives which hopefully will be within 48 hours or so, at which time place the body in the coffin by the method described above.
No cooling
If cooling is not easily or readily available or perhaps you would prefer not to use it then there is only one sensible and realistic option available to you, which is to place the body in a body bag You may prefer to do this anyway. until such a time as the body can be coffined, at which time the body can remain in the bag as it is placed in the coffin.
A good plastic, zip up all around body bag will easily contain any fluids and odors for up to a week or so and therefore is ideal in this situation.
We highly recommend that the body is wrapped in a shroud as detailed in the example above before placing in the body bag, our tips on how to move a body will have specific information about body bags, it will be published soon and will help you in this situation.
If you are in immediate need of help or advice on purchasing a body bag then please call The Natural Death Centre Helpline who will be able to help you. Tel: 0871 288 2098
Body Bag
The following is three examples of how to safely place a body in a body bag
Example 1
Place the body bag on the floor at the side of the bed and unzip it all the way around, open it out with the flap folded out and away from the bed, the idea is to carefully lower the body into the bag by using the sheet grips that were formed when the body was wrapped in the shroud.
With one person gripping each end lift the body slightly, take a second or two to judge and anticipate the weight then carefully lower the body into the bag, the body will sag in the middle but there's not a lot you can do about that without the help of one or two extra people to support the middle.
When the body is positioned in the bag, zip it up all around and either leave it where it is for the time being or lift it back onto the bed making sure that you are lifting with the twisted sheet and the bag together, this will be harder than lowering because you will have to lift higher in order to get the sagging middle positioned on the bed.
A third or forth person would help to make this example much easier because they will be able to scrunch up and grip the sheet when lowering and give support from underneath when lifting.
Example 2
This is the easiest and most common method of getting a body into a body bag but it does require a wider space to work in and depending on the weight (obviously the lighter the better) involved it is possible (though not recommended) for one person to do this on their own as the idea is to roll the body in to the open bag.
Start by rolling the body on to its side or right over on to its face, lay the body bag on the bed next to the body with the flap opening towards you (which is away from the body), without doing any lifting, tuck as much of the open bag under the body as you can, it will probably scrunch up a bit but that's ok because when the body is rolled back in to the bag the more bag on the other side of the body the better.
Once the body is rolled back in to the bag, position it as centrally as you can in order not to stretch the bag when closing it, tuck the head and feet of the body into the ends of the bag, lay the flap back over and zip up all around.
Example 3
Is simply for two people to lift the body and a third person to slide the open bag under the body, once the body has been lowered onto the bag just continue as described in the example above.
Other things to consider at this time are:
1. Where will you keep the body until the coffin arrives?
2. Where will you keep the coffin once the body is placed inside?
3. Who will you be able to call on for assistance when it comes to physically moving the body and the coffin with the body inside?
For the answers to questions 1 & 2 you need to look at the practicalities of the tasks in relation to the design and layout of the place Which is presumably the home of the deceased. where the body is at the moment.
Here are some suggestions which although may not fit in with your particular circumstances they will get you thinking about other possibilities that you can explore.
If the body is in an upstairs room then it's probably best for it to remain there until the coffin arrives, then you must judge whether it is going to be easier to move the body downstairs wrapped in a cotton sheet, in a body bag or in the coffin.
If you have plenty of room to easily navigate around bends, corridors and landings etc, then it will be a lot easier to bring the body down in a coffin because its a solid object that is easy to grip, 3 or 4 able bodied people should be able to satisfactorily move the coffin from upstairs to down.
Undertaker's assistants that carry out body removals generally only work in pairs, but it is of course a lot easier for them because they are experienced and they have the correct equipment.
If the body has to be moved downstairs and it is clearly going to be tricky due to either lack of room and or tight bends, or perhaps the body is particularly large, then this is the type of situation where a heavy duty body bag designed for body removal can be very useful because it will have six handles for carrying, although the process may not be very dignified for the deceased.
Once the body is downstairs (or if it was already) and placed in the coffin, then you need to keep the coffin somewhere until the funeral, your choice of preferences as to whether you want the coffin to be in a prominent position, perhaps on display, or whether you wish for it to be placed somewhere more discreet will obviously be of influence.
If you have a garage and you would prefer to be discrete then this would be the ideal place for storage until the funeral, the coffin could be placed on either a pair of strong trestles or similar type of benches, using two or three chairs is an excellent option, or alternatively place the coffin on two or three - 2"x 2"x 20" or similar sized timber batons on the floor, this is not ideal as it means bending and lifting so be sure to have plenty of help.
Whatever you decide to use to place the coffin on you must be sure that it is substantial enough to hold the weight, if a trestle or bench collapses then the coffin may become un-usable.
If using chairs, then the chair at the widest end of the coffin should not be positioned supporting the coffin sideways on, (unless there is another chair opposite) the backrest of the chair should be right up against the end of the coffin in order to obtain the maximum support for the coffin.
Our tips and advice guide for moving a body (to be published shortly) will go into a lot more detail about this.
Good Luck
If you need any help or advice relevant to the content of this page, then just ask.
We welcome sensible suggestions, ideas and comments.
The guide that accompanies this one is Laying Out or Last Offices for The Deceased
You may also be interested in How To Officiate A Funeral Ceremony.