On one hand, embalming restores someone to the way we once knew and loved them, creating a final image we can hold onto and remember them by. On the other hand, from what I’ve always believed, the body is only a vessel, and the state it is in after death no longer truly matters. It is buried in the earth and returns to it, just as everything eventually will. So I find myself caught between two perspectives, both of which feel beautiful and valid in their own way.
The manga made me think deeply about my own losses. One loss in particular, someone whose body I know must have been in a terrible state, and who wasn’t embalmed. His loved ones will probably never be able to erase that final image from their minds. In a way, I’m grateful that I remember him as he used to be, since I wasn’t there for the funeral. But if embalming had been normalized in our culture, maybe his loved ones could have said one final goodbye to the boy they knew and loved, rather than to what had been done to him.
I don’t know. It feels strange to think about this procedure while standing between two opposing points of view. In the end, embalming offers solace to those left behind. But as the manga says, neither a doctor nor an embalmer can bring back the warmth of a body. So does it really matter? And does the question of whether it matters matter at all?
Because even if his mother will probably never be able to forget that final image of him, he will always live in her memories of who he truly was - her sweet little boy.
Let's warm as many hearts as we can, while we still have warmth to share, everybody.
