Crematorium

What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?

I never want to visit a crematorium. Someone told me crematoriums are swept regularly, so ashes of different corpses don’t intermingle, but I have my suspicions. I suspect there would still be some ashy residue remaining, which everyone who visits breathes. On some level, ashes have to get on one’s shoes and clothes. It seems virtually impossible to fully cleanse a space designated for the regular burning of bodies of ashes.

Maybe crematoriums are best imagined.

When we were growing up, my siblings and cousins spent a lot of time visiting our grandmother in the funeral home she owned and operated. I would often open the door and peek into the embalming room. I remember the large basin where blood from the bodies being embalmed was drained. It resembled a combination of sink and commode. It might seem eerie or haunted to some people who never were exposed to funeral homes before. There are actually many people who have never (or rarely) attended a funeral or visitation.

For me, it’s more than a lack of familiarity with crematoriums or even the possibility of ashy residue from various bodies. I have visited new places before and found the unfamiliar, or the foreign, to be a valuable and worthwhile experience, so it’s not the novelty or my lack of exposure to crematoriums. I just have no desire to visit one.

Even though cremation is more popular than ever, I suspect that if I am visiting a crematorium, there is the likelihood that I’m either dead or I am about to be cremated. I mean, it could happen.