Sometimes they come back.
As I was saying... the vaultmen have the best stories.
Now, when you take a body out of the ground to move it to another cemetery, there is a rule (don't know who's rule) that you have to have the body in a vault to carry it on the road. I tried to find out if this is a MA law but got too sidetracked. Suffice to say the body has to be in a vault, whether it started out in one or not.
Now, the next thing you need to know is that if you are dug up from a vault or a gravebox, your box may be full of water. It all depends on the conditions of the ground you are, the box, what went over you for years.. you get the idea. And here is where I can get a bit confused, which is why I want the vault men to write a book. I know that pulling a cement box of water out of the ground is very very heavy, so I think often times they have to punch a hole in the side to let the water out (which you know means that in essence, you are flowing out with it). I don't know if that also means that once that is done, you have to transfer the remains to another vault. I think it does. Also I guess they don't always do that either way, If you read on you'll see why I say that.
So the guy who was relating these stories was giving us a few examples of some of the situations he's been in. In one case they had a coffin in pretty good shape, so they broke down the end of the box, and slid a piece of plywood under it and were able to pick it up that way. On a less then ideal extraction, they had a box full of 'stuff' and a skeleton, I think it was watery, Im not sure. So they used the backhoe bucket to scoop the remains up and place them in the new vault. He said the feet were hanging out of the bucket as they moved it over.They had tried to do this out of sight of anyone, but as it turned out a family member (who had been told she probably didn't want to see this happen) had been watching this all take place. And she actually thanked them for all the care they took. Which I'm sure they did, but it's kind of ironic since the deceased was hanging out of a backhoe bucket.
Another day the guy had a coffin in a box filled with .... soup, to put it nicely. They were trying to get a cable around the thing to lift it out, and the funeral director was gingerly trying to push it down with a stick, and it wasn't working. So the vault man rolls up his sleeves, reaches in up to his armpits in 'soup' and puts the cable in. That was the funniest one he told. Well, funny and gross.
We had one removal that was taken out about a week after it went in. They changed their minds about where to bury the guy. I think he went to Pennsylvania. It was actually a pain in the ass to get him out, even though he didn't need to change boxes as he was already in a vault, but we had to dig down around the vault, and dig the dirt out to remove the suction and get the cables down. It's easier to dig a big grave than around a box.
Our other disinterment was just a lid opening the day after the woman went in. Turns out the funeral director had forgotten a very expensive piece of jewelry. When removing the rings, he lifted the hand and the bracelet slipped under the sleeve, and he missed it. So we just had to get the dirt off the top, then the vault man had to get the cover off, which is sealed with that rubber stuff. And MAN does that stuff stick! It kept pulling the boom lower and lower as the chain fall tightened until finally it popped. Then we had to get the coffin up a bit to unlock it and then open it. What fun. But there it was, right where he left it.
So there you have it.
Now, when you take a body out of the ground to move it to another cemetery, there is a rule (don't know who's rule) that you have to have the body in a vault to carry it on the road. I tried to find out if this is a MA law but got too sidetracked. Suffice to say the body has to be in a vault, whether it started out in one or not.
Now, the next thing you need to know is that if you are dug up from a vault or a gravebox, your box may be full of water. It all depends on the conditions of the ground you are, the box, what went over you for years.. you get the idea. And here is where I can get a bit confused, which is why I want the vault men to write a book. I know that pulling a cement box of water out of the ground is very very heavy, so I think often times they have to punch a hole in the side to let the water out (which you know means that in essence, you are flowing out with it). I don't know if that also means that once that is done, you have to transfer the remains to another vault. I think it does. Also I guess they don't always do that either way, If you read on you'll see why I say that.
So the guy who was relating these stories was giving us a few examples of some of the situations he's been in. In one case they had a coffin in pretty good shape, so they broke down the end of the box, and slid a piece of plywood under it and were able to pick it up that way. On a less then ideal extraction, they had a box full of 'stuff' and a skeleton, I think it was watery, Im not sure. So they used the backhoe bucket to scoop the remains up and place them in the new vault. He said the feet were hanging out of the bucket as they moved it over.They had tried to do this out of sight of anyone, but as it turned out a family member (who had been told she probably didn't want to see this happen) had been watching this all take place. And she actually thanked them for all the care they took. Which I'm sure they did, but it's kind of ironic since the deceased was hanging out of a backhoe bucket.
Another day the guy had a coffin in a box filled with .... soup, to put it nicely. They were trying to get a cable around the thing to lift it out, and the funeral director was gingerly trying to push it down with a stick, and it wasn't working. So the vault man rolls up his sleeves, reaches in up to his armpits in 'soup' and puts the cable in. That was the funniest one he told. Well, funny and gross.
We had one removal that was taken out about a week after it went in. They changed their minds about where to bury the guy. I think he went to Pennsylvania. It was actually a pain in the ass to get him out, even though he didn't need to change boxes as he was already in a vault, but we had to dig down around the vault, and dig the dirt out to remove the suction and get the cables down. It's easier to dig a big grave than around a box.
Our other disinterment was just a lid opening the day after the woman went in. Turns out the funeral director had forgotten a very expensive piece of jewelry. When removing the rings, he lifted the hand and the bracelet slipped under the sleeve, and he missed it. So we just had to get the dirt off the top, then the vault man had to get the cover off, which is sealed with that rubber stuff. And MAN does that stuff stick! It kept pulling the boom lower and lower as the chain fall tightened until finally it popped. Then we had to get the coffin up a bit to unlock it and then open it. What fun. But there it was, right where he left it.
So there you have it.