First Dead Body
My first encounter with a lifeless human body was very brief and a long time ago. The details are fuzzy. I recently contacted my old friend, Jon, who was with me at the time, but his memory of the event is also fuzzy. It didn’t help that we were under the influence of a mind-altering substance.
Jon and I were out partying in my car one summer evening. Some time between the years 1979 – 1981. As we rounded a corner on a country road somewhere near Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, we saw the flashing lights of a police car. It was parked near a car that was off the road and sitting on its side. Jon and I got out and took a look in the car. There was a young man slumped in the front seat. He was not moving. The car was not running, but the cassette player was playing a rock-n-roll song.
An officer asked us to help him push the car back on its wheels. I don’t recall if he asked us any questions about what we were doing. I do remember Jon and I eventually got back in my car, buckled up, and slowly drove back home in a somber mood.
I never found out who the man was and what might have caused the accident. Of Jon’s recollection, he said “I can still hear the air exiting when they dragged him out.”
The only other dead human bodies I have seen since have been embalmed at the mortuary and on display at funerals. I have learned to be emotionally numb to the sight. We all die, in different ways, at different times. It cannot be undone. In fact, I appreciate being reminded now and then of my mortality.