When she started out, she didn't like talking too much about her job. Fifteen years later, it no longer bothers her. I take full responsibility for what I do,”
says Betty Gaillard, embalming practitioner in Morbihan. But she rarely allows anyone to accompany her into her laboratory when she embalms a body. This is not a trivial profession. I don't want to bring someone into my world if they're not ready.
Likewise, Betty Gaillard remains discreet and evasive when asked to describe the embalmer's technical actions: massaging, incising, puncturing, suturing… People don't need to know the details. You don't ask a surgeon how he operates on an open heart. But I can tell you that I am much less gory. My blouses are clean!
“We clean, we dress, we do our hair…”
The only thing to know: his job aims to limit the decomposition process of a dead body – thanatamorphosis – by draining it of its blood which is replaced by a formalin-based product. Bodily fluids are evacuated. Then we clean, we dress, we do our hair, we do our makeup. I won when people say to themselves when they discover the body: it's beautiful, it looks like he's sleeping.
Also read. Thanatopraxia: understanding post-mortem conservation care
Based in Ploërmel, Betty Gaillard works independently. It intervenes at the request of funeral directors who sell its services to families. At the wheel of her small van, this energetic woman with curly hair runs from one funeral room to another, dragging her suitcase on wheels. I always have a lot of equipment with me. For cosmetics, I am the best….
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