The people who work with corpses They are people who have "nerves of steel" as they work face to face with cold corpses every day. They are called the "makeup artists for the dead”. They use cosmetics to make the dead look bright, ruddy and soulful, as if they are still living. They even connect intact body parts. Besides “nerves of steel”, above all they must love their job. Overcoming fear  Hung applies make-up on a corpse.  The morgue of a hospital in Hanoi is always deserted and cold. It is a place that no one wants to visit. But Mr. Hung has been working here for more than two decades. Hung has witnessed, slept with, beautified and laid thousands of corpses at this morgue. Except for eight hours of rest, he spends more time there than with his family. “Previously, this hospital’s morgue lacked everything. Working here was a challenge for anyone,” he said. He still remembered the cold winter nights, when he was informed of dozens of deaths. He alone pushed a stretcher to the hospital to get corpses. The road from the morgue to the hospital was dark, long, coal, completely quiet. In such circumstances, many times Hung asked himself why did he do this macabre job? Why he was alone in a place full of dark air like this? And until today, although he has pursued this job for more than 20 years, Hung cannot find the answer. Visiting Hung’s “office”, you can feel the chilly feeling. His resting room is very small, with a single bed, which is only one wall from the corpses. Hung pointed at one table for the dead and said: "These tables are designed alike, with only one support at the center to prevent mice from climbing up. Each table has a dish-cover to prevent cockroaches and rats." "The mouse is the biggest enemy of us. They are very wise and are not afraid of man. If they cannot climb up to tables, they parachute down from the wall. We have to check tables very often; otherwise the rats will bite into the corpses," Hung said. Hung is over 50, but he has been here for over 20 years so he knows everything about the morgue. Previously, he was in the army. He said in the army, he saw many scary things, so working here is not too terrible. Yet at the beginning, he could not avoid the chilling feeling. Initially Hung thought that the duty of the morgue staff is just transporting and taking care of the corpses. But then he knew that he had to assist doctors in autopsy operations to find the cause of death. He also has to get corpses and do physical and pathological biopsies, classify body parts and put them into barrels. When he first did this, Hung could not eat for many days and vomited very often. He could not sleep and had nightmares on his first nights at the morgue. "Working here is much creepier than your imagination. Many people quit this job after a few days. They said this morgue was so dreary and creepy and they could not stand witnessing the dead bodies and having to clean up disfigured body parts," Hung said. Bachelor  life Hung’s job is not only looking after but also bathing and beautifying the dead, including doing make-up for the face, cutting the dead’s nails, trimming the eyebrows… Hung, a rustic man who knew nothing about cosmetics, is now an expert at make-up. He showed off his bag of cosmetics, with all things necessary for a make-up artist. He said those who died of accidents or was discovered after a long time after their death are the most difficult to work with. "I don’t dare tell others about my job. If they know that I’m working at a morgue, they will stay away from me and not let me in their houses for fear of bad luck," Hung said. In his first days, Hung had to drink alcohol to make his body warm and to cast away fear. He has a family in the countryside but he rarely visits his home. The lunar New Year (Tet) is the family time but Hung only goes home before or after Tet. “If I was home at Tet, I would stay at home because nobody wants my visit,” he explained. The story of Minh, Hung’s colleague, is very sad. Minh left his hometown in the central province of Thanh Hoa to Hanoi to find a job. He strives to do everything to look for a job but he could not hold them for a long time, until he found this special job. Minh said: "I have followed this job for almost two years. At first, I was very scared. But after a period of time I am familiar with this job. Now I just try to make the dead beautiful so they can confidently enter the afterlife world." Minh does not have many friends. "During the lunar New Year holidays, people usually go out to visit their relatives and friends but I stay at home to watch TV. Although no one says it out loud, I know they did not want me to visit their home," Minh said. Previously, Minh had a girlfriend who worked at a private garment enterprise. Their relation was very serious and they planned to marry. Minh decided to tell her about his job. "When I said that I worked at the morgue, her face became pale. Though she did not say anything, she became cold. About a week later, she said goodbye," Minh said. For those who "live" with corpses, it is no longer a job for a living. They can seek another job, even with higher incomes but they don’t. They often encourage each other: "This is the work of charity, doing it is leaving a good deed for the next generation." CSTC