Can a smell linger after being present when someone has died?

[Feedingwondering]

This is a very strange one and I’m looking to see if anyone else has experienced this/any advice. Last night I sadly witnessed my elderly neighbour pass away. I didn’t know them that well, but am very friendly with his carer/friend who looks after him and she didn’t want to be alone. I was in the room with him for a couple of hours until the undertakers came to remove his body. It was very peaceful and calm and it was a privilege to support his friend and help give him such a dignified passing, but I felt like there was a very specific smell in the room. Not unpleasant, just something I haven’t witnessed before (I’ve never seen/been near a dead body before). I came home in the early hours, showered and am just sat at home working, but I cannot stop smelling this smell. Has anyone experienced this before? I assume it’ll pass soon.

Smells can linger in your nose, it will pass.

Yes absolutely, I cared for my Dad last year and the smell of death lingered in the house for a long time so I can imagine you’d still be able to smell it even though you’re not at the house he died in. I think there’s a psychological element to it aswell as it’s not a smell you forget. Bit like the smell of a new born baby, just unique.

Yes, I had a job for a short while cleaning the homes of people who had died in them. It was awful. The smell often stayed with me for days afterwards. I guess it’s an unusual smell that your brain registers as “wrong”, and maybe that’s why it holds on to the memory of it. I never got used to the job and only lasted a couple of weeks!!

For several days after he died I could smell my dad’s smell. Even stranger was the day after his funeral when I got a strange sensation in my own home when the smell came and after a few seconds lingered and disappeared.

It's in your nose not the surroundings. My husband and I had to clear my brother's flat after his sudden death and the distinctive odour stayed with my husband especially long after he was home and in a different environment. As a PP has said it's the brain trying to process an unusual smell.

Yes, it's a very distinct smell - I knew my Dad was close to the end because I recognised the smell coming from him. I used to work in a nursing home and when you'd laid someone out for their relatives/undertakers, it would stay with you for some time. It really troubled me initially but you got used to it.

Yes, I also unfortunately have recent experience of this and it’s definitely a thing.

As mentioned above, I'd say its in your nose as you were present at time of death.

My Dad passed away in the evening, and my Mum felt she didn't want to rush him away from home, so he was laid to rest in bed overnight. We were actually away at the time, so didn't arrive back at the house until 14 hours later - there were certainly no unusual smells in the house.

After my nan died, I was 16, for a while I could smell her very distinct smell in the corner of the living room where she would sit when visiting. She didn't live with us or die in our house. No-one else in my family noticed it that I recall, but to me it was very potent and very real.

I had this smell at the back of my nose after sitting for hours with my father while he was dying. The only thing that would shift it when i got home, after a shower, washed hair, changed all clothes, was swigging neat spirits (brandy). I am teetotal but I needed the fiery burn of 40% alcohol to scour the back of my throat/nasal passages and it did the trick.

blessings be upon your deceased neighbour and his partner and blessings upon you for giving your time and your presence to that most sacred task of sitting with a departing soul.

You did a good thing OP. And it is a privilege.
When one of my cats died, we brought her back from the vet wrapped in a towel inside the cat basket, and left it for a few minutes on a table in the front room. My other cat came in and sniffed at the basket, then froze and ran out of the room. She smelt death, but I didn't.

Yes. I too have recent experience. It was quite a sweet smell.

There is a very specific smell of death, and yes it can linger. I’ve never been quite sure if it lingers in the nose, or in the mind. Do you have any Vicks? A little on the upper lip will overpower the scent.

I arrived at my house a few hours after my Dad died and I didn’t smell anything different. However, the house felt very strange and empty.

I took both of my cars to the vet when one was out to sleep. After it was done, the remaining cat sniffed her sister and instantly recoiled. I don’t know if it was the smell, but she completely understood what had happened.

I have no recollection of a specific smell at the time of death from those I’ve been with. But I do think I/we/people can remember smells in the same way we remember sights or sounds or what something felt like, and therefore that’s why we think the smell is in our nose or lingering?

Yes I have experienced this also after spending some time in a room with someone who had just died. When i eventually got home i had to put all my clothes in the wash and have a shower and wash my hair immediately. I have been in a room with someone else who had died probably an hour previously and the room was very well ventilated - i didn’t experience the same smell.