8.20.2010

why does death smell?

Have any of you dear readers smelled death? It smells horrible. I have seen it, from a quick internet search, described as sickly-sweet. I would describe it as stale. Furthermore, not everyone can smell it. Isn't that interesting? One person posited that it might be from ketoacidosis.

7 comments:

Brent said...

That was the weirdest thing you've ever posted. Care to share what brought this about?

Erin said...

I guess if Brent doesn't even know what's going on, the rest of us have no hope...

Kara said...

I agree with Brent about the random weirdness of this topic, but I do have a funny story. A few years ago when I was pregnant with our second daughter we had a severe outdoor field mouse infestation, and the mice seemed to love getting in our cars the most. About two weeks before I was due I noticed a slight death/mouse reek in our car. We cleaned the car and found nothing. The smell got worse and worse. We checked the car again, to no avail. This was in early spring, and we had to resort to driving the car with the windows down and the heat on full blast. Jonathan spent one full day of his weekend taking the dash apart in an attempt to find the dead mouse - and failed. Then I went into labor and Eva was born (in the hospital with a nurse midwife attending - very happy with that birthing arrangement, by the way). I was in a very happy post-baby haze until we left the hospital. There we were in the parking lot, with tiny Eva crumpled in her car seat, and we opened up the car door and out poured the reek of death. I cried all the way home thinking of poor brand new baby Eva smelling that horrible and disgusting dead mouse.

John Harkin said...

Yes, please comment.

harkinna said...

@Kara: Did you ever find the mouse?

harkinna said...

@All: I noticed the smell last week when I was sitting with my friend Beth. I realized I had smelled it two times before and smelt wafts in hospitals. I assumed everyone could smell it. While visiting I took some notes to myself about life, etc. This was one question I asked myself.

Kara said...

Never found it. The car stank for about two months.