I want to see you just one more time To make my last wish come true March 6, 15:35

The final moment when an important person greets you.

While we still have bodies, I want to touch their cheeks, hold their hands, look at their faces and say thank you, and say goodbye and see them off properly.

What is the final approach to the corona wreck, faced by the "encoffiners" who can fulfill such wishes?

What is the reason why you cried with so much frustration?

(Hiroaki Tsuboi, Reporter, News Department)

The job of a "coffiner"

Yukihiro Someya (56), the president of a company in Tokyo that handles the coffins of the deceased.

There is a wide range of work to be done by an encoffiner, including washing the body of a deceased person in the bath, dressing them up in their favorite clothes, and trimming their mouths, beards, and other facial features. , makeup will also be applied.

There are people whose complexion has changed after a long fight against illness, and there are people who have lost weight.

Among them are the bodies of those who died alone and were not found late, or those who were badly injured in accidents.

In such cases, if the family wishes to say goodbye for the last time, a technique called "special restoration" may be used.

Our mission is to bring you closer to the person you are, worthy of your family's last memorable appearance.

fulfill your last wish

Before starting the "special restoration", Mr. Someya always puts his hands together and says, "I will take care of it now."

And I spend a long time facing the person's body.

It is said that various words will come out during this process.

"It was painful,

wasn't it

?"

Mr. Yukihiro Someya

“When people finally end their lives, we feel that it is our mission to be able to fulfill the wishes of those who send them. "

"I can't say goodbye with my face now"

Last year, there was a case that left an impression on Mr. Someya.

It was a request from the wife of a young man who died after being hit by a train.

The bodies were badly damaged and technically unpredictable.

Still, the man's wife deeply bowed her head and held Mr. Someya's hand, begging him many times.

"I can't say goodbye to you now. I want you to do something about it."

Mr. Someya

: “I don’t know how far I can go, but I said that I would do my best to respond with the company’s full power.

A few photos from before his death provide clues.

Advanced “formation treatment” was performed to fill in the missing parts using special wax, etc., leaving as much of the person's hair and skin as possible to restore it.

It took about 20 hours in total to complete the restoration within the three days of the deadline.

Through an employee, Mr. Someya heard that when he met with the man after the treatment, his wife touched the man's hair many times and was reluctant to say goodbye, and when he was cremated, he took care of the hair of the deceased. It is said that he was relieved to see that he was convinced.

Mr. Someya

: “I try to erase as much as possible the memory of the bereaved family’s first sight of the corpse, and to restore the last face that remains in the bereaved family’s memory.

"Accepting death with five senses"

It is said that such work is also important from the perspective of grief care, which cares for the grief of the bereaved.

Kenichiro Hashizume, who is the representative of an organization that provides emotional care for bereaved families who have lost loved ones to disasters or illnesses, said as follows.

Representative Hashizume

“When accepting the death of a loved one, the bereaved family accepts it with their five senses. I think it's important to make efforts to restore the corpse to bring it closer to what the family wants to remember as a person."

Tears of frustration under the restrictions of the corona disaster

The last three years of the corona crisis have had a major impact on Mr. Someya's work.

Due to infection control, the government requested that people refrain from touching the bodies of those who died of the new coronavirus, so it is important for the coffin, such as cleaning the body and applying the last make-up. I was in a situation where I could hardly do any work.

The body was placed in a body bag, and the coffin was sealed with tape.

Thorough measures are taken, such as not allowing the bereaved family to enter the crematorium, and there are many cases where the family is cremated without the opportunity to properly say goodbye or see off by seeing and touching the face. I was.

On the other hand, Mr. Someya's company has a space where the corpse can be kept, so in response to requests from funeral companies, it has become more common to undertake the corpse of people who died after being infected with the new corona.

During the spread of the infection, there were times when the bodies were enshrined at capacity, but there were cases where the enshrinement lasted up to two weeks, partly because the nearby crematorium continued to restrict the acceptance of the dead due to corona.

Still, my colleague in charge of makeup said that she was in tears of frustration at the situation where there was nothing she could do.

Colleague Encoffiner

: "I can't help thinking that this person will turn into bones and return to his family, or that he's my own family. I can only do things like turn his face to the front at the end, I was so frustrated that I couldn't do it, and I cried all the time."

still do what you can

Even so, there have been cases where the bereaved families of those who died after being infected with the virus requested makeup, etc., saying, "I really want to make them look beautiful."

Initially, Mr. Someya's company also took the maximum possible infection control measures such as protective clothing, goggles, and double gloves, but since last year, it can be judged that the risk of infection from the corpse is low. I tried to treat it like a normal corpse with only one mask and one glove.

At that time, the government's guidelines had not yet been reviewed, but Someya sometimes responded to the bereaved family's request by applying beautiful makeup and sending them off.

However, despite the fact that he was sent out in this way, he was finally placed in a body bag and sealed in a coffin. It means that there was also something.

In January this year, the government reviewed these guidelines.

It was a response to the voice of the bereaved family saying, "I want you to be able to say your last goodbye."

After the revision, the guidelines stated that ``body bags are not necessary if appropriate measures are taken for the corpse'' and ``you can touch the corpse if you wash your hands properly after touching it''. It was changed so that we could say our final goodbyes.

Someya

: “The number of family members of those who died of COVID-19 who wish to wear make-up has increased considerably. I think it was during these three years that I once again felt the importance of a firm farewell to the deceased by witnessing people who were unable to say goodbye properly to the deceased."

must visit someday

Mr. Someya entered the industry in 1992, 31 years ago.

The method of seeing off the dead and the form of funerals also changed greatly during that time.

In recent years, due to economic reasons, there is an increase in "family funerals" where only close relatives are held, and "direct funerals" where cremation is performed without a funeral. This trend has progressed further due to countermeasures.

On the other hand, many of the "baby boomer generation" are in the latter stages of their lives aged 75 or older, and the number of people reaching the end of their lives continues to increase.

In 2040, the number of deaths per year is expected to peak at 1.68 million.

In recent years, Mr. Someya says that his company has been receiving more and more requests to restore the bodies of people who died alone without anyone seeing them.

So, in order to ensure that each person has a dignified end, I want you to think a little about how you will see off the dead and what your own end will be.

I strongly feel that now.

“When I ask my family, ‘What will you do if I die? The time will surely come when even the people you care about will die.

"People die in different ways, but I want you to cherish the time to say goodbye to someone important to you as proof that they have lived. If they are cremated, we will never be able to see each other again."

Reporter

Hiroaki Tsuboi

Joined the Bureau in 2013

After working in the Hiroshima Bureau and the Economics Department, in charge of news coverage related to the new coronavirus in the Social Affairs Department