The Dead Book -- Jane Churchon

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “If you treat people right, they will treat you right…ninety percent of the time.” It is the belief in this idea that causes Jane Churchon, a registered nurse for over the past 20+ years, to treat the process of pronouncing someone dead as she does; with the respect and care she hopes will be afforded to her when she passes away. Jane describes this process in her essay, “The Dead Book,” which details the accounts of pronouncing a single person as deceased. She starts out by saying, “I like to take my time when I pronounce someone dead.” She goes on to explain that it is her desire to treat bodies with the same respect that she would give to a living, breathing patient. This is evident throughout a fictional representation of the process she goes through when pronouncing Mrs. Jones deceased. Through imagery and allusions, such as “…I use one of those disposable stethoscopes…made of flimsy red plastic the color of cartoon blood, and I feel a little cheap…as if I have shown up to a dinner party in a ribbed tube top,” she engages the reader in the process, implanting feelings of remorse and respect in the reader – almost as if they personally knew Mrs. Jones. Anyone who has had someone close to them pass away can relate to these feelings. Yet, having the same feelings for someone who you didn’t know rarely surface, except in Churchon’s case. Hovering over the body, she explains her curiosity as to who the patient was and what their life was like before they were ready to be pronounced deceased. Perhaps we don’t feel this way because we don’t have a direct relation to the patient, whereas Churchon is the person responsible for bringing an end to their life officially in legal terms. But we do feel this way with Mrs. Jones, because Churchon has fostered in us a little melancholy just by bringing to mind what the people who did know Mrs. Jones personally are feeling. We weep not out of remorse, but out of respect.

Feeling For a Pulse That Isn't There 

A nurse checking for a patient's pules -- Sylvia Nickerson