8. “His eyes looked into nothing and his mouth was full of sand.”

I was in Goa, India, and was sat on a beach relaxing. I saw a boat in the distance driving erratically and then drive off behind an outcrop of land. A while later I saw a European woman on beach looking ‘puzzled’ so I thought I’d go and see what was going on.

She had seen something floating into sea. I ended up pulling out of the sea, with the American woman (not European) a dead body of an Indian man who had his arms and legs tied. …

He was obviously dead when we grabbed him in the water and was very heavy as we pulled him out of the sea. The image that I can still see today, and it’s been 14 years, is the look on his face as his eyes looked into nothing and his mouth was full of sand.

This was the first time I had ever seen a dead body before and for weeks afterwards I would dream about this person and wake in a sweat. Terrible sight.

9. “I always used to think that dead bodies look horrific, but they look surprisingly normal to me.”

I once found my neighbor dead in his yard. He looked quite normal as if alive, but he wasn’t. He had a fatal heart attack. His body still had color in it. Before that I always used to think that dead bodies look horrific, but they look surprisingly normal to me.

10. “The sound of her bones grinding together is something I won’t ever forget.”

Used to work as a nurse aid in an Alzheimer’s ward.

I went to wake this lady up and she didn’t respond. I felt for pulses and couldn’t find one. She was still warm and limp. I paged the nurse, who instructed me to start CPR while she called EMS. She was tiny, barely a hundred pounds. I got her into the floor easily and began compressions. After my second good compression I felt her sternum break off and every time I pushed down I felt her ribs grinding together.

She was 92 and didn’t have a DNR so it was mandatory to try and resuscitate her. I worked on her for a good 10 minutes, which was exhausting until the ambulance arrived. They took over and carted her out. Obviously, she didn’t make it. …

Afterwards I was very sad. I liked her, and the sound of her bones grinding together is something I won’t ever forget.

11. “Spent the following half hour picking up pieces of bone and brain from the road.”

Found a corpse at night in Mozambique, drove to a nearby town to find a policeman to accompany me in finding and informing the family, spent the following half hour picking up pieces of bone and brain from the road, as part of an effort to treat the body with dignity.