A client dropped off a death certificate of a loved one today. There is some interesting information on a death certificate. I decided to do some digging about the history of death certificates. My research stopped immediately when I came across a book by Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D., Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? The title captured my attention; the table of contents sold me on the book. Here is just a sample:
And my favorite: Will the “Worms Crawl In”?
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I see several death certificates a month while running a funeral trust. I’m always fascinated by the details and information it contains, and the differences from different states and countries. And I also have that dead bodies book you mentioned. It’s amazing what we’ve done to bodies throughout history. Saw a show on TV recently explaining what happened to Abraham Lincoln after he was shot, what happened in the hours before he died, how they moved him from city to city for open casket funerals, finally entombed, and then the remains were stolen and hidden in Illinois. Just one of the strange things that happens…