Story of a hearse driver

The need to put food on the table drove Junie to work as a hearse driver.

He was hesitant at first.

"But what the heck, I need to accept any kind of job to support my family, as long as the job is legal," he said in an interview with the Daily Tribune.

During his first day on the job, Junie was accompanied by his boss to explain the "whats" and "ifs" of the trade.

Junie remembered being nervous while waiting for his boss at the basement parking area where cadavers are released.

He said he saw his boss walking toward the hearse followed by two hospital workers pushing a bed with a body covered with a white bed sheet.

"Upon reaching the hearse where I was waiting, I was ordered by my boss to open the door at the back of the hearse where the cadaver would be loaded," Junie said.

He was asked to help carry the cadaver. Scared stiff, he did what he was told.

After his first encounter with the dead, Junie started to settle down with his new job.

Little did he know that there is more to just carrying and delivering cadavers.

One day, he was ordered to retrieve the body of a male salvage victim.

After reaching the crime scene, he saw several hearses parked and wondered why the drivers were not moving an inch.

"Going near the location of the body, I immediately smelled a very foul odor," he recounted.

He would later learn that the victim was already dead a couple of days before his body was discovered by passers-by at a grassy vacant lot.

The stench was too much, Junie had to leave and buy something from a nearby drugstore to cover the foul odor of the decomposing body.

He put some ointment on his nose and managed to carry the body to his vehicle.

"It was horrible that time because the body of the victim could be torn apart if not handled properly," he narrated.

Inside the vehicle, Junie said the odor was too strong that he had to get his head out of the window while driving.

A traffic enforcer noticed and flagged him down. He would later realize why and ordered Junie to continue driving.

The poor driver heaved a sigh of relief when he reached the destination and let the other workers unload the body.

There was one problem. The odor stuck to his clothes and inside the hearse. He drove to the nearest gas station to have the vehicle washed and cleaned.

Junie was given money by his boss to buy new clothes since no amount of washing could remove the odor.

Not all decomposing body smells that bad, Junie would later realize.

One day, Junie was told to retrieve the body of an apparent rape victim at a grassy and secluded place in Metro Manila.

As a precaution, he dropped by a drugstore to buy an ointment.

Surprisingly, Junie said the body did not smell bad as he feared.

In his line of work, Junie said he encounters different reactions from bereaved families.

Some are hysterical or violent, while others take the unfortunate incident calmly.

But nightmares started to haunt him.

"My nightmares are like my real encounters with the dead. It is just like some of the cadavers are moving," he said.

That forced Junie to quit and become a taxi driver.

His nightmares ended. He did not have to worry about foul odors, but there's a catch.

He's now worried about robbers and ending up as a cadaver himself.