If a body is that bad we'd usually try to get the family to go for a closed casket. Some people won't cremate for religious reasons. But then you have some really hardcore Italians, who expect miracles, and want an open casket no matter what. In that case you do the best you can, but you make it clear in no uncertain terms that it was the family's call, not the funeral home's.
And yeah, I saw some pretty horrific shit over the years. People hit by subway trains, people that died on the crapper (not at all uncommon, I pulled at least a dozen people off the throne over the years), plane crashes (TWA flight 800 was horrible because a lot of body parts were found).
But nothing was worse than September 11th. We buried as little as fingernails for at least two years after the attacks. That's the main reason I have zero tolerance for left wingers who cry about Guantanamo and whatnot. I was there. Water boarding is too good for those animals.
i can only imagine what 9.11 was like pizza. a lot of the firefighters were young italian kids from neighborhoods like ours.
the worst i remember seeing was this friend of mine got hit with a .45in the back of his head. this was like '78 or nine.i never saw him get hit. he was just lying face down about ten feet from me. i remember at first i though he shot himself because the colt was dropped so close to him.he wasnt really bleeding at first,then about five six seconds later itlooked like it all came out at once.you could tell his heart was still beating.his friend kneeled down and rolled the kid over. i remember everyone just being real quiet. id rather not go into a bunch of detail about it but as you can guess it was bad. gerard. his name was. poor kid maybe twenty.
