Sunday, February 03, 2008

Pacemaker Keeps on Ticking

Grandma's funeral was Thursday.  She would be delighted to know that a few hundred people attended.  She was extremely active in her church for decades.  The pastor shared some great stories and did an overall wonderful job.  The procession to the cemetery was duly honored by people pulling over to the side of the road, and the brief words at the grave site were indeed, brief, which was good considering the fierce wind made the temperature quite low and I neglected to bring a coat.

Today I had my usual Sunday dinner at my parents house, and Dad shared with us something that happened at the viewing.  I wasn't able to attend the viewing as it was Wednesday evening and I was working, and to be honest, I had no desire to view another dead body.  

Dad said an older gentleman approached him during the viewing and said that he could see Grandma's chest moving up and down.  Later, the man's wife told my Dad the same thing.  At this point in the telling of the story, my older sister said she thought she had seen Grandma breathing when she looked at the body that evening, but didn't say anything because she thought she was just imagining it.  We all knew she was definitely dead.  Then Dad said that the only thing he could think of was that her pacemaker was still working, and that it was still somehow pumping the embalming fluid through her body, or even just making that area of her body move.  She died of natural causes, so no autopsy was done, thusly the pacemaker would not have been removed.

I did a google search, and I cannot find any information on this type of event, but it is definitely creepy.  

4 comments:

CatBoy said...

I've never heard of anything like that happening, but I have heard many, many people over my long career as a "mourner" tell me they saw the dead person breathing or moving or something.

I don't know if it's a very common "all in their mind" thing, or if it's related to gases and fluids in the body moving around, but I hear it at almost every funeral.

Anonymous said...

when i was 10 my mom's mom died. my crazy aunt madeall of us kids kiss her goodbye. it was the coldest thing i've ever felt. it scared the hell out of me. i will hold that against my aunt for years.

sorry for your loss, it was bound to happen, but still sad.

jilly

Martha said...

Yipes. That IS creepy.

Brenda said...

i read your blog. :)

that pace maker thing is scary