TALES FROM PANDORA 6 (close window to return)

John Tucker had learnt the trade initially from his father, but here in this world of university degrees, most of which never led to a high salary, he had been obliged to gain qualifications in mortuary science and biology—none of which added any additional knowledge to what he had already learnt in the past thirty years. Now aged forty-eight and a year after his wife ran off with a younger man, he was struggling with the meaning of life; often contemplating suicide as a way to end his depression.

Most of all, he is lonely. Few women wished to date a funeral director despite the fact it earned very good money as a business. It was only just being recognised by the medical profession that loneliness was a terrible agony. He was up that morning making sure the front office was clean and tiny. His long-term employee, a young, smart woman was polite to him, but of course, she was not interested in a relationship. Fourteen years younger. Why would she be?

She was due in to ‘man’ the front office in thirty minutes and he had a potentially important client coming in soon—the mother of a rising and famous pop singer was considering his business to carry out the funeral for her. She had died through something so stupid—a sting from a bee. No one had known she was super-allergic to the venom until she was stung and went into anaphylactic shock, causing death in just over two minutes of being stung, and her death secured by the failure of the paramedics to revive her. At twenty-two years of age and highly talented, her life had been stolen away by a humble insect.