Yes, several all tragic including watching my best friend burn alive as a teen and later the death of my baby. After that things like discovering a mutilated body in a shallow grave weren't pleasant but not horrifying.
I had been to a number of "wakes" as a kid with my folks, as my Dad's uncles passed away one by one, as well as my Dad's parents. The dead looked to me as though they were sleeping. The peculiar odor pervading everywhere in the funeral homes was unique: a mix of flower smells and death. Years later, I was 25, my wife 20, married 2 years, she took a call on a Sunday evening while we played cards at our house, her brother, 16, sister 10, and the two of us. She dropped the phone, horrified look on her face, saying it was Pa: he had just killed their mother, now he was going to kill himself. "Don't bring the kids". I asked her if she thought he was serious. She thought so. The in-laws' apartment was only 2 miles away, as I prepared to go over there, Rick, 16, insisted on accompanying me. We broke open the back door of the porch, entered to find the two lying dead in that room. I looked closely: MIL had 3 small holes through the clothing on her back, FIL had matter oozing from his temple looking like ground liver, his small .25 Auto pistol clutched in one hand still. I went in the kitchen to the phone, called my wife at home first, then my folks, then the cops. The cops treated us disrespectfully, gruffly, insisting I bring my wife to headquarters to give them a statement. Young and foolish then, had I known what I know now, I would have told them to take a hike. My wife could hardly speak, so shocked was she, and in the very next edition of our local newspaper, the entire statement she gave was printed publicly. The cops were selling such private info to the paper! Worse was the requirement that she identify the bodies in the Cook County Morgue, as they were slid out then back into their little refrigerated cubbyholes. The morgue stank throughout with an odor impossible to describe. Within a month, Rick was showing signs of serious illness, bloody stools, which he at first hid from us. Our family Dr. asked a few questions very astutely, decided he likely had developed ulcerative colitis caused by the trauma he had been exposed to. He warned us of the possibilities, recommending that being uninsured for such illness, we put Rick in Cook County Hospital; we did, on his birthday, November 28, 1967. He had serious ups and downs, but improved slowly and was sent home on March 30, 1968, 4 months in the hospital. He had almost died, but was a strong kid. Seven years later, living with us, he had a relapse and died on November 28, 1975, his 25th. birthday! My wife barely survived this latest mental assault, and for a variety of reasons she asked that we separate. We were divorced in 1976. I wrote the divorce decree which she presented to the judge; I never appeared in court, no lawyer was involved, we had sold our home ourselves, split the proceeds, and agreed to the remaining property split. I call her each year on her birthday, she is 5 years younger than I. Frank
You, too, @Frank Sanoica have experienced truly horrible things. Sad for you. I hope you don't judge all police departments and morgues by your experience in Chicago.
Like Ken, I was an EMT back in the mid-later 70's. In fact, back then, the abbreviation "EMS" wasn't known and our overhead emergency light bar was red and yellow, not red and blue, like today. We had Cadillacs and regular vans (not box vans) for Units. For the few years I did that, in Los Angeles and Orange County, California, I seen some dead bodies, but not a lot. Friday and Saturday nights were always busy for my Unit. Seen the spring-operated doors of the L.A. County Hospital ER a whole lot. One DOA was a man in a downtown L.A. motel room. LAPD was there first. We were called, but we didn't transport. Coroners Office did. DOA's (Dead On Arrival), drug overdoses, suicide attempts, shootings/stabbings and bad traffic accidents made up my time as both a driver and attendant in Units. Actually, was extremely glad to get out of the business and to into manufacturing. Better pay, definitely less hours and weekends off.
@Don Alaska Of course, I do not. However, observing the downhill trend in L.E. during the past few decades, I have difficulty reconciling my past experiences with today's events in many positive ways. Frank
An after thought occurred to me that I had indeed seen a dead body before. I think I was still in elementary school 5th or 6th grade. We had moved into a two unit apartment building and my mother was friends with our neighbor. I became friends with her daughter who was younger than me. I thought she was an only child but later found out she was the youngest of four and lived with her mother. Her father owned a funeral home. Anyhoo, she invited me along on a visit to her father who had an apartment above the funeral home. She had no fear as we ventured down to the funeral home. We were greeted by a baby in a open casket as I followed her to the rear of the funeral home. Peeping in rooms as we went. Then there was the body of a man, lifeless, only covered by a piece of cloth laying across his private parts. I noticed his right arm was extended and cut open at the pit of his arm. The flesh was like a white/yellowish color. There was a drain leading from the armpit to a bottle which contain some blood which was not red but a deep dark crimson/purple. I think this is why I always get weak kneed and a little faint when I see blood. How could I forget that?