Quick question. Do you send the shrouded deceased in a hospital gown?
I have always put a clean hospital gown on the body before wrapping the deceased in that heavy plastic shroud. Never occurred to me not to. At my new job, I was helping a co-worker with post-mortem care and she stripped off the gown and started to wrap the naked, still warm body in the plastic shroud. I was aghast. She said "it's policy -- you send them naked."
Now, I know it's just a body and that the spirit has left, etc. etc. etc. But I just thought it was appalling! Those plastic shrouds are awful enough but I understand the need for them. I just kept thinking, what if this was my mother's body? It seems so disrepectful.
What do you do?