Embalming is one of the most common options for temporarily preserving bodies after death – but what exactly does it entail?

Most people don’t like to think about what happens to people’s bodies after they die. Victoria Bilstein is an exception.

“I’ve actually wanted to be an embalmer since I was 10 years old!” says the funeral director, embalmer and author based in the midwest. As a child, Bilstein had two leg surgeries that incorporated bones from two deceased donors. After that, she wondered about the people who had helped save her life and the families who had lost them.

We are all going to die, and so is everyone we know. So how can you not be terrified?

For most people, death is not a standard conversation topic. Once, at lunch, a friend began talking about her mother’s death several years earlier. Her voice caught occasionally, but she spoke about it plainly – like a simple fact of life. As we talked, I noticed another friend was shifting uncomfortably in his seat; he didn’t say much.

Afterwards, I asked him what was wrong. “I really don’t like talking about death,” he said, his hands twitching anxiously. “I don’t even like thinking about it. It freaks me out.”