to think this is not right

[charleneanna]

ok my friend is a 20 year old single parent with a baby she is or was quiet happy in her flat until the other day, we were at hers and we heard some noise so we looked out of her window and the shop underneath her that had been empty for some time was open and a couple of freezers were being taken in so i said well maybe its gonna be a frozen food shop that would be brilliant but then yesterday the sign went up above the shop omg atwells after life its a bloody funeral directors now dont get me wrong they are needed but surely not a shop below a flat in a residential area my friend is now that terrified at going to bed above dead bodies that she has begged me to let her and baby spend the night at my house but my house is already overflowing sorry but this is notnright

YABU

Tell your friend she'll be fine. We live next door to a funeral directors and there's never been any trouble. It isn't creepy and the only time they bug us (and it really doesn't actually bug us) is to ask if that's our Mercedes parked in their spot (yeah right, like we own a Merc!) because the ambulance has shown up with a body/the hearse needs to collect the bereaved and they need it moving.

It has helped to start a few healthy conversations with our 4 year old DD about death but I really don't have a problem with talking about it. Death is a part of life isn't it?

*come

What, Christian goats?

I thought that ghosts were supposed to hang out where they lived/died, not where the body was stored? Can you try explaining this to her, she's more likely to be haunted by a previous tenant who popped their clogs.

I think if she saw a body in a Chapel of Rest she would feel better, it is very, very obvious that there is nothing there anymore. Sadly you generally have to know someone who died to do that though. I doubt her new neighbours would do show and tell sessions.

I do think she is overreacting though, if she has this kind of anxiety, she needs to see someone about it, not have a meltdown because of something happening in a shop she will never have to go in (not conscious anyhow)

OP why don't you suggest that she complains to the council that the property below hers has too many occupants?

I doubt her new neighbours would do show and tell sessions.

They might. My daughter's old school had an outing to the local undertakers.

YellowRaincoat You are, of course completely correct. I am a fool, with no excuse.

Surely they didn't show them random corpses though? I think the families might mind.

Funny

I love it when a thread genuinely makes me laugh out loud and than I have to try and explain it to dh who totally doesn't get it.

FFA tell her to grow up.

Surely they didn't show them random corpses though? I think the families might mind.

No, but one of the staff did hide under a sheet and frighten them all stupid.

For everyone who seems to think that the OP's friend is making a fuss about nothing - how would you feel if you found out that your house was built on top of a cemetery, or that there was a dead body under your patio? Sure, the dead can't hurt anyone, but no matter how much we laugh about it death is still an emotive issue.

There's also the thought of living so close to the stream of grieving relatives visiting the funeral parlour. And as someone else said earlier, the washing line of shrouds (yes, they do reuse them).

No advice to give, I'm afraid, other than to say that I don't think I'd feel too comfortable myself being in that situation. Not because of fear of the dead but because of being so close to the whole "end of life" experience all the time. I don't think there's much she can do about it, other than perhaps visit the place and get acquainted with the staff and the layout so that she can demystify it. Or if she really can't do that, then perhaps it's time to move on.

Actually I have seen another dead body. It was horrible beyond horrible. A car crash on Mile End Road in the dark, late at night. We drove past, not rubber necking, just slowly because we had to. The driver was clearly dead, almost decapitated. His wife was screaming and sobbing, flapping around him. They were both quite elderly, the lady was wearing a type of Sari and lots of jewellery. I thought they had to have been to a celebration or a wedding. The dead man was clearly dead but the wife will be imprinted on my mind forever.

thank you for this thread Charlene, it has really cheered me up!

I once lived across the street from a sex shop, I would have loved them to move out and an undertakers to move in... and when I was 8 I got trapped in a room in an undertakers with a dead person I didn't know!!! I nearly died myself but seriously, that's because I was 8.

What's your friend going to do when her dc have a nightmare about a ghost or a monster? Hide under the covers herself? When you are a parent you sort have to get over these silly little fears for the sake of your children.

Harriet, I would be bothered about the patio scenario because it implies a murder or some other sort of illicit death has taken place, not so much because there was a dead person there.

Magneto how'd that happen?!?

Dead neighbours .

Alouisee, that's horrible. All your stories are. :(

Is your friend scared because a corpse stole your punctuation marks? It's a little bit like listening to a 6 year old talking without breathing. Your friend needs to grow a pair. Hth.

Shrouds, flapping on the washing line in the garden.

I love that.

I have seen many,many dead bodies. But I never felt abything other than sad.

If this was true...then I wonder whether the co-op WOULD let a tenant come and have a look in the chapel of rest to put their mind at rest, rather like when I used to get taken into the cockpit of a plane before take off due to my fear.

I've also watched a post mortem, that was interesting rather than gruesome

I scent a flounce on the wind. Has anyone checked the Huns for wailing?

Harriet my DD died on my living room sofa.

Have some experience of This Sort of Thing.