Thiruvananthapuram: Crematorium officials and workers encounter nightmarish moments constantly and one expects them to be hardened by deaths.
But the fact is they are never really prepared for what they see.
Santhikavadom charge officer, Shaji MS and his team, on Tuesday brought the body of a three-day-old baby which was lying unwanted at the medical college hospital for cremation and the experience moved him so deeply that Shaji recounted it in his Facebook post.
“For the past one year, we have been receiving and cremating bodies of so many people who died of Covid.
Even if no relatives are around, we would do whatever we could to bid them an honorable farewell.
But receiving the body of a three-day-old baby (who was apparently unwanted) was emotionally stressful for us,” Shaji said in his post.
“We thought the least we could do was to keep the ashes, we hope someone would come for it,” he said.
“The baby was born prematurely and we understand the father had demanded a post-mortem.
After that the parents didn’t receive the body and it had to be kept at the mortuary,” said a corporation official.
Shaji’s team had to deal with the cremation and transportation of two other babies on the same day.
The team got a call from the mayor’s office saying that a couple couldn’t afford money to transport their baby’s body to Varkala from the Medical College.
The team transported the body in a corporation ambulance along with the parents.
“For the last few months, I have been receiving calls mostly related to deaths.
So, in a way I was emotionally hardened when I took charge at Santhikavadom.
I had thought death wouldn’t scare me anymore having handled around 250 bodies in the last one year.
But Tuesday, I lost my sleep after receiving the baby’s body.
Death really hurts.
There was another small coffin waiting at Santhikavadom.
I saw two parents the same day; one who wouldn’t take their baby home and left it in the mortuary and another couple who wept all the way home with their baby’s body,” Shaji said.