THE PUZZLE OF A PERSON

WHAT WAS IT LIKE, THE FIRST TIME YOU WORKED WITH HUMAN REMAINS?

The first time I worked with human remains was in the dissecting room in Aberdeen University. I would have been 18 or 19 at the time. You walked into this room, a huge room that was almost like a conservatory because it had a glass ceiling and opaque glass windows all the way around. It had the most beautiful parquet flooring. It was a really strange room.

There were around 50 metal tables, on top of each was obviously a body, each one covered in a white cotton sheet. So, when you walked into the room, all you saw were these white mounds in rows and lines along the room. The next thing you do is you take off the white sheet and you’re faced with the dead. You have to touch them, and you feel really embarrassed about touching. This is somebody