Steady hands gently place the lady down on the cold, stainless steel bed. With utmost respect and solemnity, nimble hands hover over the body as they try to restore what is lost.
She succeeded in ending her life - and if that was not crushing enough for her loved ones, she was barely recognisable from her attempt. Jumping from the 13th floor shattered her facial bones, and her face, a mangled mess.
“Take all the time you need,” said the grieving family to Carl. Their only wish was for their loved one to be sent off, with dignity.
Consulta Carl Emerson, 42, is an embalmer at The Life Celebrant (TLC). Using the art of science, he ensures the departed are well prepared for their final moments.
In his 15 years of experience, he has embalmed about 4000 bodies. Among these, cases of train suicides, brutal accidents, and even children who planned their own funeral processions.
He remembers them all - their faces, their stories, their loved ones.
It was not always his plan to be an embalmer, nor even remotely be part of the death industry. Born in the Philippines, occupations associated with death were generally looked down upon, left to the lower castes.
Ironically, Carl started out as a teacher of Biology, the study of life.
Pressured by his parents to move over with them to Singapore, it was difficult for him to find a job, much less a teaching job. So, he decided to change his mindset - to find jobs that were not popular with Singaporeans. Much like the Philippines, death in Singapore was a rather taboo subject to touch upon.
Carl realised that there were untapped opportunities in the Singaporean funeral industry, impelling him to immediately fly back to the Philippines to study embalming.
This marked the beginning of his journey; a journey about death, which has taught him so much more about life.
Afraid of facing discrimination back in the Philippines, Carl did not tell anyone apart from his wife about his embalming studies.
As a father of two, all he really wanted was to be together with his family. Other people’s thoughts and opinions did not matter.
When his embalming journey first began, he was haunted by the mental images of the dead. However, dealing with bodies on a daily basis has helped him to develop significant mental fortitude.
Yet, to this day, Carl still finds it difficult to embalm the young, as well as suicide cases.
After such cases, he tries to take his mind off it by cycling or jogging. He even talks to his suicide victims on his steel table, asking, to no reply, why they would take their own lives.
He starts off every embalming session with a prayer, from a force of habit. With no prior background in the death industry, it is natural to be scared of a dead body - it is only human.
Carl maintains that an embalmer’s level of experience is reflected in the way they treat the deceased - a new embalmer would concentrate on the workings of the process, while an experienced embalmer treats it as an act of service. This mindset is only cultivated after witnessing thousands of cases.
The label, ‘embalmer’, has the all-important duty of using the art of science to ensure the departed are well prepared for their final moments. He recalls telling off his apprentices for placing tools on the departed: “The body is not a table, you have to treat it with respect.”
To disrespect the departed is to disrespect the canvas of an artist.
To call Carl an artist would not be far from the truth. To him, one of the biggest satisfactions comes from transforming the departed, as the main job of the embalmer- to bring life to the lifeless.
However, while he was training to be an embalmer, the cosmetic aspect was incredibly foreign to him. So, he immersed himself in cosmetic training, volunteering by cutting hair at hospitals, participating in fashion shows and makeup lessons, and even practicing on his wife.
Each body is unique, requiring different techniques and approaches spanning across a range of complexities – reattaching amputated arms, mid-decomposing bodies, children with smaller blood vessels, diabetic patients with gangrene, and those discoloured yellow from jaundice or liver failure. He always thinks he has seen everything, only to be surprised by the next.
This is why his expertise is in high demand. With his skills and experience in the industry, Carl stands out as a jack-of-all-trades – he strives to improve and innovate, talks to families, designs graphics, conducts live streams, and even makes videos. A far cry from the generic traditional embalmer, he has never lost sight of his purpose: to teach and share his practice, but he can’t just do it online. Fortunately, alongside TLC, he will be launching a training school: the Singapore Institute of Funeral Service, with him personally helming embalmer training - a first in Singapore.
Even without promotion, Carl is confident of its reception, judging by the amount of Facebook messages and emails of interest they receive. He maintains that having a mentor as a guide is indispensable - a role that he is more than happy to play, to help them find their future paths.
A veteran in his field, Carl is very open on the topic of death with his family. They are understanding - as he is the only embalmer at TLC, they are aware of the erratic, on-the-call nature of his job, often requiring him to cancel plans mid-way, and be on task even in the wee hours of the morning. His apprentices can only assist. None have yet to be able to step up independently, so the bulk is on him, through the support of his family.
He dislikes working on children, not just because it was a young life, full of untapped potential and love. Above all, it reminds him of his own two children.
And of course, he agrees, knowing he is the only one he trusts to do the job, a final way to express his love and care. On the same page, Carl would rather be cremated immediately, knowing that he has yet to find and trust someone who can embalm him.
Unsurprisingly, Carl would rather not have his children follow in his footsteps, due to the erratic work schedule - though he is supportive, if it may come to such a conclusion. His 17-year-old sometimes tags along in the embalming room, and even knows how to wrap a body.
Carl reminisces in the bittersweet case of Misha - a six-year-old girl who planned her own funeral. Diagnosed with a debilitating illness, she understood what was coming, and made sure she departed in the way she wanted to. And that was a punch to Carl’s gut - who would have known, the bubbly girl he was just talking to a few days ago, would now be lying on his steel table? The brutal, cruel irony of a child having to plan her own funeral struck him and the team hard, but as affected as he might have been, he had to do his best.
It is times like these where the mental fortitude of an embalmer comes into play, as he meets people with heightened emotions on a regular basis. One may be able to serve the family better when emotionally in control, but he believes he should not suppress all emotion, as it expresses sincerity and empathy. Seasoned as he may be, he is not immune: his weakness, when children cry.
Carl knows he wants to continue doing this for as long as he can. Understanding that he is irreplaceable by technology and artificial intelligence, he maintains that he would stay, as long as he can work on his goal of helping those who are interested in his profession; to teach. He is visibly excited as he reminds us about his upcoming development at the Singapore Institute of Funeral Service, an avenue for him to share his knowledge.
With so many years ahead of him as an embalmer, he fully believes that his perspectives on life will never stop evolving - with each case, each family, he learns and grows, making him a wiser and better person, as his appreciation of the frail preciousness of life develops.
