Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs and Other Questions About Dead Bodies

Not for the faint of heart but as I do have a cat, and the title hadn’t ever occurred to me until I saw it, I thought why not? It’s a funny title and did want to know the answer. She obviously has a following and felt comfort and strength in numbers and not some sole wacko as I have a lot of company, so I picked it up. Doughty is a professional mortician and researched the answers to questions people have and only to happy to share. Weirder the better. I guess there are no such things as a bad question but people ask the strangest things then you find yourself wondering what the answer is.

She also has a show somewhere on one of the platforms, no pun intended. She is simply a fun person doing what she has a calling to do. There have been a few famous stars who survived as “body” makeup artists before they made it and I had a coach that had worked as an assistant through college for extra cash doing whatever assistants do on the night-shift. It has to pay better than fast-food, customers don’t complain, and he said he fit studying in the overnights. Having said that, I would not have been caught dead anywhere near a mortuary other than being a valet maybe, depending on tips. Not my thing.

She demystifies what happens when we all die and therefor it helps when we are confronted with it and come to peace with it as I have if your manage to live long enough. I wouldn’t say it’s a million laughs and reluctant to put this book in the humor category, but did anyway, and it is very educational, and answers a lot of questions that you will find interesting you didn’t know to ask or care to.

My only experiences with morticians and pathologists (yes I know they are two different kinds of animals, one job involves no makeup) has been different, hit and miss, so this book is a breath of fresh air, but still different, but in a good way. I went to a pathologist’s party (once) that had a good turnout and was fine except he played rain and lightning sound effects only and he described to me with great tipsy relish something I would have preferred not knowing involving the cranium.

When I met a mortician through a mutual acquaintance that was fine too except he jumped right into his total hairless fetish and super encouraged me to give it a go. It seemed like he brought his work home a bit too literally, and enthusiastically. I also delivered flowers (once) to a mortuary and met Bloody Mary, a nickname I was told about later. Very elderly and smashed our of her skull first thing in the morning; a memory hard to forget as let’s just say her customer service was way out of line.

So the fact that Doughty is a skilled storyteller delving into a taboo subject at least in the U.S. I think is great because we can all just learn to take a breath and get over it. It’s necessary to say goodbye. It’s the bitch of life. It’s also a celebration of life and helps us all relax a bit instead of mixing up respectful mourning, acting out, and fear. Humor is an effective coping mechanism and those closest to us would want us to remember the good times.

We are robbed of our loved ones and miss them, but none us can feel we were robbed of their love while they walked this earth or forget they made our lives much better.