Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

At Westwind, they receive the body of Jacob, a 22-year-old man who died by suicide after standing on train tracks. It is common for train conductors to inadvertently kill people while doing their jobs; Doughty notes that on average, a train conductor will hit three people over the course of their career. Jacob’s family lives in the state of Washington, and nobody comes to San Francisco when he dies. His parents pay for his cremation over the phone, so Doughty is the only witness when his body goes into the retort. She struggles with her role in Jacob’s body’s final moments.

In contrast to Jacob’s lonely cremation, Doughty describes a “witness cremation” where families can watch the body burn. Her first witness cremation is for the Huang family, who are cremating the patriarch of their family. She is unprepared for people to watch her work, so Mike tells her he can handle it. Doughty thinks about how Western funerary traditions have evolved to “distance the family from any aspect of death that might potentially offend them” (57), noting how different the Huang family’s Chinese tradition is in comparison. The Huang family sets up an altar complete with offerings. Family members are very vocal in their grief, which is foreign to Doughty.