DH's body was cremated yesterday afternoon, Death is a very strange thing here, as I am finding out. I have paid a funeral director an eyewatering sum rather than do all the running around and organising myself (no objection letters from 5 different entities were required, as well as two cremation permits from two different governments). As DH didn't want a service, DD (aged 26) and I did not attend the cremation - it was, I assume, a respectful but nonetheless functional occasion. I now have a PDF certificate confirming his cremation to add to my growing collection of death-related PDFs - even the death certificate was downloaded in PDF form via the government app.
Having to go back to the morgue yesterday to re-identify his body, 6 days after his passing as part of the cremation permit process, was an experience that will haunt me. The identification took place with his body on a trolley in the loading bay of the morgue and a van waiting nearby, surrounded by the porters and other staff, and with no privacy and even less respect and dignity for either DH or me. My friend, who accompanied me but was made to wait with DD in the waiting room, is absolutely livid on my behalf and has made complaints to the 'concerned entities', as they would say here.