To be fair, we’d scream and run away too. Probably uttering all sorts of prayers we know by heart.

Redditor /u/the_8th_henry:

Before I moved, my neighbor was a mortician. He didn’t have any particularly creepy stories, but one stands out. It happened one night when he was preparing a body for an early morning wake or service (it was something unusual that required him to work late into the night).

As he was working on the body, he turned his back to grab some tools or supplies. The angle at which he was standing left the body visible out of the corner of his eye. While looking down at the tools, he saw the body slowly start to sit up.

His fight-or-flight instinct immediately kicked in, and he bolted for the stairs, but he was so panicked and clumsy that he tripped and ended up crawling and clawing his way up.

Just as he was nearly at the top, his senses returned, and he realized it was just rigor mortis. He paused, collected himself, and started laughing at how absurd it all was.

y that point, he’d been doing this for 15-20 years, and it was the first time his instinct had overtaken his experience. He sheepishly admitted that he had to go clean himself up because, in the panic, he’d accidentally soiled himself.

So do remember to open your bible every once in awhile and memorize a few Psalms.

Redditor /u/Loverboy21:

If bodies have a lungful of air, moving them can cause it to be released. As the air travels through the throat, it can result in some minor vocalization, usually just a liquidy gurgle.

It still catches me off guard sometimes, especially if I’m working alone.

The perfect intro for a new Stephen King novel.

Redditor /u/NurseSexKitten:

I’m a nurse, and the only place I’ve ever noticed the lights flickering is just outside the morgue. They’re usually fine, but whenever we bring a body down, the lights always flicker. It’s really unsettling.

It felt cold. Put a thicker blanket over it….

Redditor /u/Pays_in_snakes:

I was filling out paperwork on one of the bodies while working late and, out of nowhere, it shuddered. I’d never seen that before or since, and there was no explanation for it.

At least it was the chapel and not anywhere else, so kneel and say a prayer.

Redditor /u/Tejnin:

I only had one experience, and it was around 10 p.m. After two years of no unusual activity at the location, I had turned off all the lights in the chapel.

But when I went to check the casket door, the lights suddenly turned back on.

I was nowhere near the switch.

Not funny. Not funny at all, guys.

Redditor /u/Eicrad:

I would sometimes come to work with my mom and help her set up the chapel for a service. One service that stands out was for a little boy who drowned.

His parents dressed his identical twin brother in the same outfit as him.

Grief really does mess with you.

She retained her sense of humor just so she could have the last laugh.

A former Redditor:

The funniest thing that happened was when an elderly woman with a glass eye chose to have it kept wide open. I got a huge fright when I saw her in the casket.

Dogs do that to a person alright.

Redditor /u/hate_my_login:

My mom was asked to go up into the attic to look for some old records and stumbled upon a baby coffin. When she nudged it with her foot, she could tell it wasn’t empty.

She quickly went back downstairs and asked the director about it.

Turns out, it was a man’s embalmed dog, being stored until he passes away so the dog can be buried with him.

If you believe in signs from beyond, this counts as one.

Redditor /u/oodlenoodlespoodles:

One time, the family decided to release doves at a rural cemetery, even though they were advised not to. It really stood out when a hawk swooped down and tore one of the doves to pieces.

What’s ironic is that there was no clowning around that day.

Redditor /u/spicemaster242:

We once had a deceased clown, and it was definitely one of the strangest cases. The person was buried in full clown costume, makeup and all.

The entire family was made up of clowns, and so were their friends.

At their request, even the funeral directors had to dress up as clowns. They provided the costumes and did our makeup.

The family and friends all had a single tear drop painted near their eye. It was definitely the most unusual experience I’ve had.

Well at least he didn’t have anyone staring into his soul.

Redditor /u/SweetSyberia:

One of the creepiest experiences for me was when I was cleaning a gentleman’s body and had to clean his eyes. When I opened them, I was shocked to find two empty sockets with no eyes.

It was an autopsy embalming.

The deceased must have taken revenge from beyond.

Redditor /u/Gingervitus455:

After an open casket viewing, a man came in asking to pay his respects privately, which was pretty common.

We escorted him into the viewing room, opened the casket, and told him to take his time. A few minutes later, we heard a loud popping sound, followed by running and the door slamming.

We rushed into the viewing room to find the deceased’s mouth hanging open and the skin looking strange. The best we could figure is that the guy must have punched the body and then ran off.

She was completely out of her mind. That poor kid.

A former Redditor:

At the visitation before the funeral, separated parents were mourning the loss of their toddler. The mother’s grief seemed almost unreal, like something was off. Suddenly, she picked up the child and hid him in her coat, sneaking out of the door while no one was watching.

The other funeral director was left in shock when they noticed the casket was empty. After some searching, he found the mom running to her car, where he stopped her and took the child back.

The situation escalated, and a huge argument broke out between the parents at the visitation.

Two months later, it was revealed that the mother and her new boyfriend had physically abused the child, which led to the toddler’s death, while the biological father had no idea.

Wouldn’t have been a pretty sight with an open casket.

Redditor /u/Tejnin:

A decomposed body was found after it had been left in a garage for three weeks during the summer. The man was covered in bugs, his skin was black and green, and the flesh practically slid off the bones.

There was nothing I could do for the case, and he was ultimately cremated.

It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience, and a whole lot of not being freaked out.

Redditor /u/StudentMortician:

While we were prepping and washing the body of a 90+ year-old woman, one of her toenails fell off, and the hair on her head kept shedding.

It took us about three hours to carefully place her hair back in, one strand at a time, to make it look presentable.

The deceased should have haunted them in their dreams.

Redditor /u/vibree:

At one service my mom attended, the widowed husband of an older woman arrived with his much younger girlfriend, who was dressed in a revealing outfit.

As the husband began to cry, the girlfriend would comfort him by pulling him into her chest while gently stroking his hair.

Not long after, the husband asked one of the funeral directors about the flowers from the service, inquiring whether he could take them with him for his wedding to his new fiancée that weekend.

The lady must have wondered why she was being moved without her permission.

“One instance spooked me bad. My coworker and I were told to move a body out and clean the room for its next occupant.

We went up, got the woman’s body out of the bed and onto a gurney, then checked to make sure all the equipment around the bed was off (it was the nurses’ job, but we were always told to double-check).

I stood at the foot of the gurney to direct it when my coworker quietly said, “… Dude … she’s… awake…”

The woman’s eyes were blinking rapidly, but they were glassed over and lifeless. Anyone who’s seen a dead person’s eyes knows what I’m talking about—there’s no sign of life.

We both freaked out and screamed for the nurses, who came running.

They called a code, thinking she might be waking up… My coworker and I just backed up, pressed ourselves against the windows, and watched the chaos unfold.

Turns out, the woman was stone dead—no breathing, no heartbeat, no brain activity, nothing. None of the nurses or the doctor would explain why she was blinking hours after death.”

It was a friendly poke, though coming from beyond the grave, that’s just… no.

One time, I was prepping this man and came into the prep room to do some laundry. As I walked past him, I noticed a small piece of lint in his ear from the towel I had used to dry him off.

I took my gloved pinky and swiped it out, then went on folding towels. The next thing I know, I felt something touch my ear, near the opening.

It felt like someone had stuck their finger in my ear, but there was no one around.

The next day, I was looking through the obituaries (I always check the obituaries of the cases I work on), and sure enough, this man had one. It mentioned how much of a prankster and fun-loving person he was. I guess I was his last prank.

More than enough to make you want a stick and a cold one.

I worked security at a hospital, and part of my job involved dealing with the morgue. One time, I had just come on shift and had to go release a body to a funeral home.

I walked in and seriously thought someone had been eating BBQ in the morgue.

I asked if a particular doctor was back (we had previously had to get the administration involved in telling her she couldn’t eat while doing autopsies or store her groceries in the walk-in cooler with the bodies).

The other guy with me asked, “No. Why?” I said, “Because it smells like BBQ.” He replied, “Oh nope. That’s the five kids from the house fire.”

I felt like crap the rest of the day.

She took her own life because of something that happened, and now she’s crying for help.

My first experience at work when I started my embalming career was at an independent mortuary service. I had just started my shift and was using the restroom in the back.

When I came out, I heard what sounded like a girl sobbing and the shuffling of feet on the floor. The floor was a bit gravelly, so it had a distinct sound if you dragged your feet across it.

The sound was coming from around a corner that led into a small room where we would store embalmed bodies ready to be delivered to their respective funeral homes.

I figured someone was upset and crying, so I snuck in, still hearing the sobbing. When I peeked around the corner, the room was empty. No living person in there.

I noticed there was only one body in the room as well—a young girl who had shot herself in the side of the head. I wasn’t scared per se, but I’m pretty sure you could audibly hear my heart beating.

There really is something about those horror movies where the lights always flicker.

“Nurse here. I’ve seen my share of things. People tend to poop themselves when they die, and before we take bodies down to the morgue, we always have to clean that up. Also, bodies stay warm for a surprisingly long time. I was really taken aback the first time I did post-mortem care when, an hour later, the body was still quite warm. The only place I’ve ever noticed lights flickering is just outside the morgue. They usually work fine, but every time we bring a body down, the lights always flicker. It really creeps me out.”

Another worker adds:

“When I would present with a specific body to high school students, a single light would frequently flicker during my talk. What’s strange is, that light never flickered at any other time, and it would only happen when I was presenting with that specific body. I never mentioned it to the students and always played it off as nothing, but secretly, it always kind of freaked me out and made me wonder why.”

Hoping they gave him a hand after the job he did.

“One time we had a person who did some acting and modeling in California—a hand model. The family came in early for the visitation to set up pictures and things.

I showed them in, helped them get started, and then left them to do their thing. About 10 minutes later, I came back to check on them, and almost every picture they had put up was of this person’s hands from the various ads they had done.

There were a few family photos, but most of them were just pictures of hands. I found it funny because most people would put up full photos, not just hands.”

The deceased got hurt after a wrestling move.

“One time, my uncle picked up a body and hoisted it over his shoulder to carry it to the cart. Keep in mind, this was the 50s, so they probably don’t do it like that anymore.

Anyway, he flung it over his shoulder with the head side against his back, and my dad was standing behind him when it happened.

That movement compressed the remaining air in the lungs, and my dad said the dead body just let out a huge moan that scared the bejesus out of him.

He honestly thought maybe the guy wasn’t really dead or was starting to reanimate!”

Maybe the dead are afraid of the living for good reason.

“Dead people can get goosebumps. The arrector pili, which are the tiny muscles responsible for goosebumps, go into rigor mortis after death just like every other muscle.

Since rigor mortis is transient, it can be strange if you notice the goosebumps appearing or disappearing—it makes it seem like the person is still alive.”

Rice came with lots of sauce that day.

One mortician shared, “We had this house call once. The lady had been dead a while. She was bloated on the couch, and when we started moving her, her abdomen burst. I ended up with goo and maggots all over my leg.”

Another mortician responded, “We call maggots ‘disco rice.’ I absolutely hate them.”

Morticians and their staff probably cuss like Gordon Ramsay during the process.

One mortician humorously shared, “Contrary to popular belief, the dead aren’t basted in rosemary honey-butter and slid into a giant Kenmore if they’ve chosen cremation. (Trust me, I was disappointed to learn that, too.)

Instead, once coroners, medical examiners, and morticians finish their extensive checklists, you’re rolled up in a plastic sleeve like a giant newspaper and placed in a long cardboard box.

Your toe-tag is taken off and hung on a hook outside the oven.”

Another mortician revealed, “There are usually multiple ovens, so they need to make sure the ashes go to the right family. Although there’s some co-mingling of ashes, it’s minimal.

You can’t get every single grain out, but as long as it’s properly swept, it’s not much.”

As for the cremation process, they added, “The ovens are cranked to either 1400 or 1800 degrees, and that’s when the smells begin. Obese people being cremated smell like bacon, while skinny people smell like fireworks.”

This got way too “Final Destination”. Someone start shooting the new film, quick.

One mortician shared, “I’ve seen some interesting deaths. I embalmed a man who was found dead, leaning over a balcony at the front of his house. It was October, and with all his decorations, the neighbors thought he was just another part of the display. He had been there for days.

Another time, an elderly couple was walking down a main road when a truck carrying sheet metal passed by. One of the sheets flew off and decapitated both of them.”

The poor kid was forgotten because of someone’s negligence.

One mortician shared, “The place I work has a small area in the fridge for newborns, tucked away in the corner on a little shelf. Usually, there’s a clear plastic bin with a few blankets, as the infants are often extremely premature, so it’s hard to notice them all bundled up.

One time, someone brought in an infant but didn’t fill out the proper paperwork. Over the next several months, an awful smell started to permeate the area. Despite cleaning, the smell lingered. It wasn’t until someone checked the bin that they discovered a decomposed infant.

I’m relieved I didn’t have to see it, but knowing what the smell was like still makes me sick.”

The dead don’t like watching couples getting down. Let them rest in peace.

One mortician shared, “There is one thing that’s the worst. I worked for a while in a hospital here in Spain, and one of my duties was taking recently deceased patients to the morgue. You’re alone with the body, and suddenly it moves.

I literally sh*t myself the first time. Apparently, when the body is fresh, sometimes the muscles contract and, with the help of internal gases, the body can shift or even sit up a little.

I eventually got used to it because it doesn’t happen often, but that first time caught me completely off guard.”

Another added, “A friend of mine once dated a mortician’s daughter, and while they were making out in the prep room, a body suddenly sat up. It freaked him out, but she just said, ‘They do that sometimes,’ like it was no big deal.”

That body is cold and stiff, so why make it challenging?

One mortician shared, “I always slice the back of t-shirts, shirts, and jackets. It just makes it easier to dress the body. I don’t like jostling around with them in case they purge some fluids. I work with a guy who cuts nothing, and I just chuckle as he struggles with the body.”