“I lost my mother when I was in form two and I didn’t get to grieve the right way.”
These are the words of Ann Njoki Mwangangi who is a Mortician from Nyahururu.
In an interview with Radio Jambo, Mwangangi explained that when her mother passed away, she lacked a proper support system.
“The reason why I decided to become a mortician was because of my own tragedy. I didn’t get to grieve the right way. I was stuck and struggled for a very long time, she said.
Four years later after her mother’s death, Mwangangi was able to heal emotionally and get closure.
It was then that she decided to study mortician science.
“I really would have liked it if there was someone to hold my hand and take me through the mourning and transition process. So I said I will help someone else to transition through grief. I never got to experience that. That is what inspired me to be a mortician,” Mwangangi revealed.
Despite handling corpses, she notes that morticians are the main people who assist the bereaved family in the transition after grief.
Mwangangi adds that counseling comes in hand with the work morticians do as they prepare the family to go to the next stage.
“People think that morticians only handle dead bodies but we do a lot more and take part in walking with the mourning family through the entire process,” she said.
Morticians also ensure that the grieved family is satisfied and knows that their loved one is in safe hands as they embark on burial preparations.
Revealing her working experience, Mwangangi says morticians at times break down with the mourning family because they are also human.
Waking up everyday day, the mortician tells herself that her work starts when another person’s journey on earth ends.
“I have the mentality that anything can walk in the morgue corridors so it's up to me to armor myself with grace,” Mwangangi added.
When asked whether they run out of business she said there are no days like that because death is meant for all of us.
“I don't wish death upon anyone but that is where we are all headed,” Mwangangi said.
Taking us through her first experience handling a dead body, the morticians said that she was unable to eat but managed to sleep.
Her sensitivity to smell caused her to lack appetite.
Mwangangi said that in the morgue, they receive all types of bodies, fresh ones, those which have stayed for so long, the smell was a trigger.
“I’m very sensitive to smell and in my first experience, I was very uncomfortable with the smell and there are things you are not taught at mortuary science,” she noted
In her line of duty, Mwangangi says they try to end all the misconception people have about morgues by offering top-notch services.
Believing in her services, she said that anyone who brings their loved one has received the best mortuary services.
As a mortician, Mwangangi says her biggest work is to slow down decomposition of the body.
“It is our biggest responsibility. So when someone says nichungie mwili, it means when they are coming to collect we shall have ensured the person looks the same as he was when alive and this brings a lot of closure at the end,” she explained.
Despite her job, Mwangangi said that she has made friends along her career journey.
Speaking on misconceptions about working in a morgue, Mwangangi says she is 100 percent normal.
“There is the misconception that to work in a morgue one has to be on drugs or you are not 100 percent normal or you don’t have an alternative to live. People speculate a lot but I try to kill the conception so that people will not be shocked when their children say they want to read mortician science,”she added.
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