I came across this article at CNN.com and it does a great job explaining why some people shouldn’t be in the crime scene cleaning business and why you need tough skin to be a crime scene cleaner. Not only to deal with the sights but the family of the deceased.
I had a family stand outside an apartment in San Antonio and wanted to see what I was putting in the incineration boxes. They actually wanted to sift through the box of bio-hazard waste to make sure we didn’t toss anything. It just is incredible the way families can act when their loved one passes. People stand outside of terrible crime scenes and fight over who gets what about things that really don’t matter, like lamps. We always take our time to bag important items for the family. There is an emotional switch you have to turn on and off especially when this happens. I often think of the victims and their families during and after the clean-up. But at the end of the day it is nice to know that I helped start their healing process. That is why I continue to clean up crime scenes and that is why I feel it is rewarding.