Another Service Needed in Granada
We had just returned from a party on a farm on the rim of the Apoyo Laguna, about 30 minutes from our home. They have the most magnificent views in all directions though quite windy and cool. A full afternoon of Nica folkloric dancers, good food and fellowship.
My cell phone rang and it was a friend in the Granada police department. An older expat ...had passed away and the police had a problem. It was a big holiday weekend and all of the police vehicles were in other cities of the departmento. The expat had no family here and the body had to be transported to the police lab in Managua for an autopsy. Could I help?
I asked why this was my problem and he replied it wasn’t but I had always been helpful in the past heading up the Amigos de Policia organization. I sighed and said to give me a few minutes to see what I could do. As I hung up I asked myself how do I get in these situations?
The problem is that we don’t have that type of service in Granada. The Red Cross and the firemen will transport someone who is hurt or sick but not dead bodies. The funeral homes sometimes will pick up the bodies but only to take them to the funeral home to prepare for the wake. You may be aware that the funeral hearse here is a beautiful black carriage drawn by two horses. So anyway, the police usually end up with the responsibility though they will try to find someone in the family first.
First, I tried to call a friend that I can sometimes talk into helping in these strange assistances. She offered her pickup truck but like me, will not drive at night and I really did not want to drive with a corpse anyway. Just one of those things I can’t bring myself to do. After thinking about it for a while, I remembered a friend that picks people up at the airport. It seemed like a similar service.
I called him up and told him I had some good news and some not-so-good news. The good news was that if he was available I had someone that needed to go to Managua right away and the bad news was that it was a corpse. He agreed to it anyway and gave me a price that I thought was fair. He picked me up and we drove to the police station to pick up the documentation and the police officer. This took longer than expected.
Finally the three of us drove to the place where the expat rented a home. This was all a little eerie for me. While I have had a full and varied life, it did not involve too many dead people. I cried like a baby when my dog passed away.
It was a small place and the body was lying on a mattress in the main living area. Once a person passes away it is hard to think of it as a person anymore. OK, I am now outside of any experience on what to do and asked the police officer what to do. He said we simply roll the body over to the side, put down a sheet and roll the body back on the sheet to transport it to the waiting van. Whoa, I have to touch the body and lift it to transport it to the van? There were several problems with this script. I usually avoid touching a corpse, this guy was big and we had no gloves.
OK, we found plastic bags to use for gloves. With much effort, we were able to roll the guy over and eventually situate him on the sheet. I could not handle seeing the face so we kept it covered with a towel. Somehow, we struggled and got the body into the van. We then scrubbed our hands before continuing.
The police officer was as nervous about this procedure as me but I made him ride in the back with the corpse. After all, he had a gun in case the body woke up and became a vampire. Obviously I could never be a funeral director or even an EMT worker.
They left me off at my house and they continued to Managua. The following morning the driver came to see me and said everything went well though they had to carry the body into the police lab. The embassy was able to locate some family and it is now in their hands.
My cell phone rang and it was a friend in the Granada police department. An older expat ...had passed away and the police had a problem. It was a big holiday weekend and all of the police vehicles were in other cities of the departmento. The expat had no family here and the body had to be transported to the police lab in Managua for an autopsy. Could I help?
I asked why this was my problem and he replied it wasn’t but I had always been helpful in the past heading up the Amigos de Policia organization. I sighed and said to give me a few minutes to see what I could do. As I hung up I asked myself how do I get in these situations?
The problem is that we don’t have that type of service in Granada. The Red Cross and the firemen will transport someone who is hurt or sick but not dead bodies. The funeral homes sometimes will pick up the bodies but only to take them to the funeral home to prepare for the wake. You may be aware that the funeral hearse here is a beautiful black carriage drawn by two horses. So anyway, the police usually end up with the responsibility though they will try to find someone in the family first.
First, I tried to call a friend that I can sometimes talk into helping in these strange assistances. She offered her pickup truck but like me, will not drive at night and I really did not want to drive with a corpse anyway. Just one of those things I can’t bring myself to do. After thinking about it for a while, I remembered a friend that picks people up at the airport. It seemed like a similar service.
I called him up and told him I had some good news and some not-so-good news. The good news was that if he was available I had someone that needed to go to Managua right away and the bad news was that it was a corpse. He agreed to it anyway and gave me a price that I thought was fair. He picked me up and we drove to the police station to pick up the documentation and the police officer. This took longer than expected.
Finally the three of us drove to the place where the expat rented a home. This was all a little eerie for me. While I have had a full and varied life, it did not involve too many dead people. I cried like a baby when my dog passed away.
It was a small place and the body was lying on a mattress in the main living area. Once a person passes away it is hard to think of it as a person anymore. OK, I am now outside of any experience on what to do and asked the police officer what to do. He said we simply roll the body over to the side, put down a sheet and roll the body back on the sheet to transport it to the waiting van. Whoa, I have to touch the body and lift it to transport it to the van? There were several problems with this script. I usually avoid touching a corpse, this guy was big and we had no gloves.
OK, we found plastic bags to use for gloves. With much effort, we were able to roll the guy over and eventually situate him on the sheet. I could not handle seeing the face so we kept it covered with a towel. Somehow, we struggled and got the body into the van. We then scrubbed our hands before continuing.
The police officer was as nervous about this procedure as me but I made him ride in the back with the corpse. After all, he had a gun in case the body woke up and became a vampire. Obviously I could never be a funeral director or even an EMT worker.
They left me off at my house and they continued to Managua. The following morning the driver came to see me and said everything went well though they had to carry the body into the police lab. The embassy was able to locate some family and it is now in their hands.
