A husband who didn’t want to say goodbye immediately after his wife died, slept in the same room as her body for six days.
Wendy Davison, 50, died of cervical cancer and passed away at her home in Derby with her husband Russell and one of her two sons, Dylan, by her side. Her husband said he didn’t want to take her body to the mortuary after she died, and instead kept her at home. This helped the family come to terms with their loss.
“The impact of having Wendy’s body lying in rest in our bedroom with family and friends coming to pay their respects and sit and vigil with her was really quite astonishing,” he said.
“I would describe the process as like an emotional decompression chamber, allowing us to start to come to terms with our loss while Wendy is still with us.”
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We’d like to hear how you said goodbye to your loved ones. Perhaps you had an open casket at home or even travelled with them during a “rolling wake”. Did you tend to their body after their death, and did this help with the process of coming to terms with your loss? Do you wish you had spent more time with a loved one after they’d passed away, or approached this moment differently? How did friends and family feel about the way you said goodbye?
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