It has been said that death is not the end, forgetting is.
As long as someone remembers, people will always live.
I didn't understand this sentence in the past until I read Yang Yucheng's story - the story of a mortuary, and I had a deeper understanding of life and death.
He has been an undertaker for 11 years, from ignorance at the beginning, to compassion and compassion later, he is used to seeing life and death, and has also encountered many touching stories.
The funeral home is the end of the deceased, but it is the continuation of the living. Those who walked out from here dragged their tired bodies to continue to move forward, and no one ever stopped, but there were countless people who wanted to stop.
In this life, there is nothing important except death.
1. Just looking for a job
In 2012, Yang Yucheng happened to see a job advertisement - hearse driver.
At that time, he had been wandering outside for many years, changing many jobs, but he never met a suitable one.
In fact, it is difficult to meet the right one, he has a low level of education and no special skills, so it is good to find a job to support his family.
Seeing the job advertisement, he dialed the opposite phone.
After asking about the salary and working hours, Yang Yucheng also asked a question: "Does this job have to be in contact with corpses?" ”
He is only a young man in his twenties, and he is somewhat resistant, and with the traditional ideas that he has been instilled since childhood, he always feels bad luck in contact with corpses.
It's nature, and the same kind has an innate fear of the corpses of the same kind.
The person in charge of the funeral home said that he didn't need to contact the corpse, he only needed to drive, and he was stupid to believe it at the time, and only after joining the company did he know that he had been "deceived".
The funeral parlor is not large, and in addition to driving, the hearse driver sometimes has to help carry the corpse and reshape the corpse.
He is not small, but he is very resistant to this, thinking about refusing, and thinking that the salary of the funeral home is not bad - in 2012, more than 3,000 per month.
Coming from a small place, he has entered a factory, served plates, and driven a truck, and his monthly salary is only one or two thousand, and the salary of more than 3,000 is indeed not low.
He thought about doing it for a while, and if it wasn't suitable, he would leave.
Whoever wants to do this, it's 12 years.
Xu is not to let him do it, this first order is not "simple".
A few days after joining the company, Yang Yucheng and the funeral home mortuary driver drove to the scene of the car accident to "pull the body". Just by taking a look at the scene, he couldn't help but retch.
That scene was really terrifying.
The scene was full of flesh and blood, the truck driver was broken in two, and the internal organs were scattered all over the ground, and the mortuary had no way at all, so he asked Yang Yucheng to help.
Yang Yucheng unconsciously took two steps back, only to feel that it was too scary.
He is usually not small, but it is the first time he has seen this scene, and at the urging of the master, he stepped forward with his eyes half-closed to collect the corpse with the master.
After finishing this order, he was almost completely out of strength, slumped in the driver's seat, and retreated in his heart.
Before he could recover from his recovery, the old master pulled him to bury the body and send the deceased on his last journey.
That was the first time that Yang Yucheng had such a head-on contact with a corpse, and he had to touch the corpse from time to time, until he had completed the contouring and shaping of the corpse, and put it together into a "person".
After the thing was done, his whole person was completely out of strength and empty.
Don't think about it, there were many nightmares that night, as long as you close your eyes, it was the bloody scene.
This job is really not easy to do, but he is not a person who is afraid of hardship, and he wants to insist on it any longer. I didn't think that the funeral home would "have to make inches", not only to let him be the driver, but also to sometimes take care of the mortuary.
Second, send people off for the last time
The dead sleep forever, the living often remember, this last journey must make each other feel at ease, and there is the profession of mortuary.
Undertaker, a profession that allows people to "embark on a stable journey".
Before he came into contact with the work of a hearse driver, Yang Yucheng never thought about becoming an undertaker. The funeral home where he works is relatively small and does not have many staff.
Every time I get out of the car, I will help the mortuary to store the corpse and reshape the corpse, and gradually take on the work of the mortuary. The work of the undertaker is not simple, it is not simply "makeup" for the deceased.
In order for the living to grieve less and the dead to rest in peace, the undertaker needs to make the deceased look "peaceful", as if asleep. If it is a normal death, just be careful in your "makeup"; If it is an unnatural death, such as a car accident, falling from a building, etc., the deceased also needs to be shaped.
In "Life Events", there are clips of shaping and contouring the deceased.
As a "veteran", the male protagonist can't stop vomiting when he shapes others for the first time.,This is a normal physiological reaction.,It always takes a while to recover.。
When Yang Yucheng first got started, he couldn't sleep well for several days, and he didn't dare to go to the toilet alone at night, and often felt cold behind his back, and this state lasted for half a year before he slowly adapted.
It's not that I'm not afraid, it's just that I've seen too much and become numb.
He got used to the work of the funeral home, and his family said that they did not agree with him doing this job!
"People will gossip and find another job."
"You're not afraid of bad luck, hurry up and change jobs."
"Don't change? Then don't come back! ”
Yang Yucheng's parents, both from the countryside and relatively traditional, are particularly sensitive to life and death, and feel that their children will get into trouble when they deal with corpses all year round.
Besides, this work is not glamorous, and I am afraid of being gossiped about.
If his family started to oppose it, he might change jobs, but after working for half a year, he gradually got used to it, and he didn't want to bother, plus his salary increased.
After saying it a few times, the family did not object again.
After working for several years, he has accumulated a lot of experience and received a lot of recognition.
He has done a lot of work in the past years, and there has never been a job that has made him feel as fulfilling as he is now, and no job has allowed him to learn so much.
Yang Yucheng really liked the work of the mortuary, and almost devoted his body and mind to it.
Whenever Xu Shi restored the body completely and made the body look like he was asleep, his family would bow to him and express his gratitude, so that he could see the value of life.
More is this life is muddy, and less is sober in the world. Now that you have found something worth doing and enjoying, you naturally have to do it wholeheartedly.
3. A special wedding
In May 2017, Yang Yucheng went to work in a funeral home in Guizhou.
He worked in the small funeral home for more than four years, and then the funeral home was closed, so he came to this funeral home.
After coming here, it's a little busier than ever.
From May 2017 to the present, he has probably come into contact with tens of thousands of corpses, and there are more than a dozen a day when he is busy. The more bodies you come into contact with, the more stories you have.
The mortuary only retouches the body and never asks about the deceased.
In this industry, crying is the most unprofessional behavior, but there has never been a mortuary who can achieve a calm face, and Yang Yucheng is no exception. In those years, he had seen old people send their wives to tears, and white-haired people sent black-haired people, but what impressed him the most was the "wedding at the funeral home".
The funeral home brought the body of a young girl.
When the young girl was in a car accident and was not saved, when she was sent to the funeral home, Yang Yucheng was responsible for retouching her appearance, at this time a young man took his hand, tears gleamed in his eyes, obviously restraining his inner emotions, the young man said: "Excuse me, try to repair her appearance, she loves beauty, and she definitely doesn't want to go like this." ”
Yang Yucheng nodded, it was his job.
He was grooming the young girl at the workbench, and the young man was comforting the girl's parents outside, obviously he was so sad in his heart, and he tried his best to hold back tears rolling in his eyes, and he wanted to comfort others.
Come to think of it, the young man must love the young girl very much.
After being repaired and shaped, the young girl lay quietly as if she had fallen asleep.
Seeing the appearance of the young girl, the young man couldn't hold back any longer, tears welled up, and he vented his reluctance and nostalgia to the fullest.
After seeing the last face, the funeral home was about to dress the young girl into the coffin, and the young man's eyes were red, and he took Yang Yucheng's hand, wanting him to help him for the last time - to change the young girl's wedding dress and hold a special wedding at the funeral home.
It was only at this time that Yang Yucheng knew that the two were going to get married, but because of a car accident, they were separated by yin and yang, and finally violated the agreement to grow old together.
Looking at the parents of the young girl who was already crying to the exhaustion outside the door, and then at the young man with red eyes, Yang Yucheng was very moved. He has a wife, how can he not understand this kind of pain of love and yin and yang, without the slightest hesitation, he immediately agreed to the guy's request.
After dressing the young girl in a wedding dress, the young man stood quietly beside him.
In those eyes, it was clear that there was reluctance and pain.
According to the guy's meaning, Yang Yucheng and his colleagues arranged the mourning hall according to the wedding scene, but replaced it with elegant flowers, which was a little more desolate.
The body was placed in the mourning hall for three days, and the young man guarded it for three days, and he was wearing a bridal dress all the time, busy with everything he wanted, and it was hard not to be moved.
Yang Yucheng thought to himself: "If the young girls hadn't been in a car accident, they would have been very happy." ”
Since he became an undertaker, he has encountered all human things, but this incident is like an ancient myth.
The young girl is just the fiancée of the young man, and holding this special wedding will still affect the young man's life later.
Would he, someone else, have the courage to have this special wedding?
No one can say it clearly, which is even more moving.
After this special wedding, the young man bowed and thanked Yang Yucheng many times.
That heartfelt gratitude made Yang Yucheng feel more at home to the job of an undertaker.
After 12 years of working as an undertaker, he has become more and more aware of a truth: there is no major event in life except death.
When you are alive, you must cherish the people and things around you.