Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician

Michelle Williams is young and attractive, with close family ties, a busy social life . . . and an unusual occupation. When she impulsively applies to be a mortuary technician and is offered the position, she has no idea that her decision to accept will be one of the most momentous of her life. “What I didn’t realize then,” she writes, “was that I was about to start one of the most amazing jobs you can do.”

To Williams, life in the mortuary is neither grim nor frightening. She introduces r…