I have just learned about Everyman’s departure from this world and I would like to offer some instructions on how to correctly handle his corpse during your time of grieving. I understand that beauty couldn’t follow him into heaven, but we can keep it with him on earth for as long as possible through a proper process of embalming. I understand that the loss of a family member can be difficult, but this process will retain his beauty for the funeral and preserve a beautiful image of him in everyone’s minds. If you prepare his body, set his features, embalm his arteries, embalm his cavity, and casket his body according to my instructions, you will be able to preserve Everyman’s beauty even though he is dead.
Before you can start the actual embalming process, you must first prepare his body. Lay Everyman face up so that his blood doesn’t flood into his face and take off any clothing that he is wearing. By removing his clothes, you will be able to tell that the procedure is working correctly, so he must remain naked until the final step. Next, use strong disinfectant to cleanse his eyes, nose, mouth, and any other hole in his body. At this point, you can shave his face to give him a sense of neatness and freshness. The final step of preparing his body, and the most time consuming, is to massage his body. You must massage his muscles to avoid rigor mortis, which is the stiffening of the joints and muscles after death. That stiffness prohibits the embalming process by hindering the movement of the embalming fluid, which will later be injected into his body.
Now it is time to arrange his features to represent his natural face position. Try to close his eyes and place them in a natural position, but if his eyelids look unnaturally sunken, place a small piece of cotton underneath his eyelids to create the normal round appearance. If his eyes refuse to stay closed, you can glue them shut, but never stitch them closed. The next step is to set his mouth in a proper position. His mouth should be closed and held shut by string or a mouth form. You can sew his mouth shut with a curved needle and suture string, but this method is prone to error because the mouth can be sewn too tight, causing an unnatural jawline. Instead, you can use an injector gun and a mouth form, which can keep his jaw together using his natural bite and jaw alignment, causing a natural jawline appearance. Finally, you must moisturize his facial features to stop them from drying out and becoming unlifelike.
The next step begins the genuine embalming task, starting with the arteries. Before you begin embalming Everyman’s body, you must choose a place for the initial incisions, which will allow the embalming fluid, which is a mixture of formaldehyde, chemicals, and water, into his body and drain his blood out. The most common incision site is at the base of the SCM muscle and the clavicle because there is an artery for the fluid and a vein for the blood close to each other. Once the site is picked, sterilize the vein and cut an entrance point. You should place a drain tube towards the heart to allow the blood to flow out of the body and tie a ligature around the end of the tube. Then, you should clean the artery and cut an entrance point. Position a cannula, which is a tube used for administering the embalming fluid, in the artery and lock it in place by using cannula forceps. Use smaller forceps to fasten the upper part of the artery and restrict the flow of the fluid. Then, turn on the embalming machine that is connected to the cannula and distribute the embalming fluid throughout Everyman’s body.
The fluid will create pressure in his veins while it is moving throughout his body, so untie the ligature at the end of the drain tube periodically to release the pressure. While the machine is embalming his arteries, wash Everyman with antibacterial soap and massage his limbs to help move blood out and embalming fluid in. Over time, slowly lower the pressure of the machine and when you only have about twenty percent of the embalming fluid left, turn the machine completely off. Take the cannula and insert it in the other side of the artery that was previously closed by the small forceps. That will embalm the right side of his head, which was cut off from embalming circulation before. Turn the machine back on, but only with low pressure because the fluid doesn’t have to go very far in this case. Once the embalming process is complete in the arteries, turn off the machine, remove the tubes, tie off the vein and artery that you cut, and sew the incisions closed. Cover the cut with sealing powder to make sure that the body doesn’t leak any fluid.
The next embalming task is to embalm his cavity. You must first use a trocar to remove bodily fluids and gases from his organs so that they don’t build up and escape his body through his nose or mouth. Insert the trocar into his chest cavity two inches above and two inches to the right of his belly button. Use it to clean out the hollow organs in his chest, such as the stomach or the pancreas and then move the trocar to his lower cavity. Insert the trocar in his lower cavity around his belly button and aspirate his large intestines and bladder. You can also place cotton in his anus to prevent any leakage from that area. Remove the trocar and place it back into the chest cavity and use it to inject thirty percent formaldehyde embalming fluid into the cavity. Gravity will push the fluid into the hollow organs and the fluid will preserve and clean them. Then, move the trocar into the lower cavity and inject embalming fluid into the organs down there to sterilize and preserve them.
Make sure to embalm all the organs in the upper and lower cavity so that his body doesn’t “purge” or push the fluids out through any holes in his body. The final step in this embalming process is to remove the trocar once and for all and close the punctures made in Everyman’s body with trocar screws. The last step of embalming Everyman’s body is called casketing the body. First, thoroughly wash his body with disinfectant to remove any excess blood or chemicals left on the body during the process. Make sure to wash him carefully and gently. Next, apply makeup to his face to give him a likelike appearance and normal coloration. Cut his nails to touch up his features and comb his hair neatly. Dress Everyman carefully with your desired clothing or what you would like him to be buried in, and if his body is very leaky, you can dress him with plastic underwear. Finally, place his body in his casket and arrange the body to look peaceful and comfortable.
If you have preferences on how he is placed in the casket, you can change them at this time, such as having his hands folded on his chest or having them lay by his sides. The final choices are up to you. I understand that his process probably seemed overly complicated and unnecessary, but I assure you that embalming Everyman’s body is the best choice for him. As long as you follow the five main steps of the process in order, everything should be fine and his body should be perfect for his funeral service. Make sure to prepare his body, set his features to look natural, embalm his arteries, embalm his cavities, and properly casket his body. If you follow my instructions, you can retrieve what was left behind when Everyman went to heaven. You can preserve his worldly beauty for all to see.
