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Mortician debunks myth that cemeteries never run out of space

Home> Community> Weird

Published 20:09 8 Aug 2023 GMT+1

Mortician debunks myth that cemeteries never run out of space

A licensed funeral director and mortician answers the internet's burning questions about dead bodies

Anish Vij

Anish Vij

A mortician has debunked the common idea that cemeteries never run out of space.

Victor M. Sweeney - who is a licensed funeral director and mortician - has stepped up to answer some weird and wonderful questions about dead bodies.

Twitter users have been sending in their thoughts on burial spots and they're not for the faint-hearted.

Victor M. Sweeney, a licensed funeral director and mortician.
YouTube/WIRED

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"Will morticians give you a shower? Asking for a friend," one person wrote in.

Responding to the question, Victor said: "We do bathe every deceased that comes through and wash and shampoo their hair, but I cannot imagine trying to prop somebody up. Doing it whilst they’re laying down is ideal.”

Another user asked if it is legal to turn a person into a 'life-sized doll after their death', with Victor answering 'absolutely not'.

Got to say that most of us will be relieved at that one.

A similar, dark-worded question asked how a mortician would 'fix' a body that had been shot between the eyes, asking if they would use 'silly putty'.

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"We work very hard on restoration, when someone's shot between the eyes providing the rest of the head is still there, we’d probably want to pack the bullet hole with cotton or a firmer material and cover it with wax," Victor explained.

“It’s softer than candle wax. It softens up with the heat of the hand and we can use it to wax over a wound and we can get the proper texture with stippling and brushwork and colour it in.”

Twitter users have been sending in their thoughts on burial spots and they're not for the faint-hearted.
Pexels

In a new Q&A with WIRED, the funeral director was asked: "How come cemeteries never run outta space?"

Fully debunking the idea, Victor explained: "Sometimes cemeteries do run out of space.

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"In larger metropolitan areas, sometimes it's the case where families will actually bury their loved ones on top of existing graves.

"In certain other countries and in other parts of the world, you actually just rent a grave space.

"So for instance, in Germany, your grave space is not your mum's or dad's forever, but for a period of years, after which your rent expires, they dig up the dead and they put them elsewhere in a common grave usually."

So there you have it.

Another common question previously asked was whether morticians 'really sew your mouth shut when you’re dead?'

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A mortician has debunked the common idea that cemeteries never run out of space.
Pexels

Shockingly, Victor said: “The answer to that is yes. And also no. We generally don’t sew the lips closed, you can imagine how much time and fine detail it would take to do that.

“There are two ways to close a mouth. You can bring the jawbone up with some needle and thread.

“You would go up out of the nose, across the septum, back down and through the lip to pull the two ends together.

“A needle injector is sort of like a piston and you simply tie the wire together to hold the mouth in place.”

Featured Image Credit: YouTube/WIRED/Pexels

Topics: News, Weird

Anish Vij
Anish Vij

Anish is a Journalist at LADbible Group and is a GG2 Young Journalist of the Year 2025. He has a Master's degree in Multimedia Journalism and a Bachelor's degree in International Business Management. Apart from that, his life revolves around the ‘Four F’s’ - family, friends, football and food. Email: [email protected]

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@Anish_Vij

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