Death Mask
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To my wife, Beverly, for her courage and love and my son, Owen, for his laughter and inspiration.
Death Mask — A cast or likeness usually made of wax, plaster or metal, taken from a deceased person’s face just after their passing.
A dimly lit bedroom is crowded with onlookers. The men stand shoulder to shoulder on one side while the women huddle themselves together on the other. Some are in attendance out of genuine sorrow, but most are here to satisfy their morbid curiosities.
The deceased, a male, has died only minutes before: the culmination of a lifetime of mental illness and self-inflicted abuse.
In anticipation of his imminent death, the mask casters, in accordance with the sick man’s last wishes, are already on site and waiting. When the time finally came, the casters respectfully ushered their way into the room to ready the materials needed to cast the mold for his Death Mask.
The sniffling crowd watched stoically as the white plaster was poured onto the dead man’s face then oozed its way into every wrinkle and orifice. As the plaster was being smoothed, the crowd’s mournful silence turned to gasps of horror when the dead body twitched and exhaled a final breath.