User:Evajade 1997/Hearse nurse

Hearse nurse Prior to modern pre-burial practices some morticians offered an additional service to those available today.

To be buried alive has always been considered one of the most nightmarish experiences one could imagine so steps were taken at a point in history which involved ensuring a death had absolutely occurred before a burial takes place. For those family members who clung onto hope and for the truly paranoid, a female medical practitioner would accompany the body of the presumed diseased, in the hearse, to check and test for any faint signs of life that may remain. Only when the prosection was nearing its destination, the hearse driver would tap his foot on the side of a water filled bucket, kept handy to help in a revival attempt (Hense the term 'kicked the bucket') signaling the nurse to carry out her most grim of tasks. She would drive a sharp piece of timber into the brain of the corpse, through the eye to ensure death was absolute. (Hence the term 'better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick' although when you consider the alternative, to the con try.) This final act of compassion was not for the faint hearted and was only superseded when the practice of connecting a bell to a corpses hand to alarm cemetery staff of their awaken state. This gave birth to the term 'The graveyard shift' for the lone watchman over the late hours untill early morning to listen for bell sound from under the earth.