Isn't Life Strange...

I did something today that I've never done before. I had to identify a body. I had to be sure that the remains purported to be those of James Henry Sharp, my long-ago boss from 1983 - 1996 at the Einstein Planetarium, were indeed his. I chose to do this voluntarily, since I was the second-to-last person who was reasonably close to him to see him alive in late January just before the blizzards hit. He died on March 1.

Under Virginia law, virtually nothing in an estate proceeding can happen until the remains are identified. Jim's wife is in Colorado and I'm here, so the obvious decision was to have me do the deed.

It was a very interesting experience. Years ago, when I was in East Africa, I saw lots of Maribou Storks, which, along with the vultures and hyenas, are the trash collectors of the open plains. The storks always stood around in a kind of formal manner, and for some reason all I could think of was that they reminded me of some undertaker from a moldy Dickens story.

The attendants at the funeral home where Jim was instantly made me think of Maribou Storks. Older, somewhat hunched over, with a somber formal bearing and black suits. Originally I was led to the "arrangements" room, where they had all the sample urns, caskets, etc. Realizing their mistake, I was then led up to the "viewing" parlor.

Well, there he was. At first I was afraid that they had the wrong person in the box. This man was clean-shaven, and the Jim that I knew always had a beard. In fact when I last saw him he had a really long beard and hair, which made him look even more like Galileo than he did back in the late 80's and 90's when he impersonated the famous astronomer on a number of occasions. Well, the beard was gone now and his hair was trimmed, and for the first time I saw his chin. This threw me for a bit of a loop, to say the least. I mean I was there to officially identify him and this was not exactly the Jim I remembered. However, I was finally able to get a look at just the upper part of his face, and then mentally "grew him a beard". It was definitely Jim.

Thank goodness he appeared as if he were merely asleep. I half expected him to open his eyes and ask what I was doing there. But he had a look of serenity about him, a look that seemed to indicate that he was ready to meet his demise with dignity and grace. There was nothing unsettling about the experience. Actually the "Maribou Storks" creeped me out way more than Jim did.

We have a Facebook page dedicated to him now, and it's nice to see that people are finding it and contributing to it. He's been gone for three weeks now, and I guess I am now really the last person who knew him to see him. Hopefully this will clear the way for the settlement of his affairs and another interesting interlude in life closes a chapter.