A day in the life of... a mortuary coordinator

Mortuarium Schiphol coordinator Ben Vos (right) with two of his colleagues

A fact of life

It’s not something we like to think about, but a fact of life is that death is the only certainty after being born. Sometimes, people die in a country they are not originally from. And that often means that they need to be repatriated. Mortuarium Schiphol organises and oversees the returning of deceased foreign citizens to their home countries and the receiving of Dutch citizens who passed away abroad. And this involves a lot of different procedures, from taking care of paperwork to enabling family to say goodbye to their loved ones. As coordinator, Ben is the one in charge of all this.

Back to the Netherlands

‘There’s always an overview of what needs to be done, but apart from that we never know what the day is going to bring.’ Working at the mortuary means that Ben has a varied job, but there are standard procedures. When a Dutch citizen passes away abroad, Mortuarium Schiphol cooperates with their partners to bring the person home as quickly as possible. First, the airline flies the deceased to Schiphol. With safety and security as a top priority, the incoming coffin gets checked for contraband. Sometimes the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee will carry out checks. Ben and his colleagues then take care of the deceased before they are taken to a funeral home elsewhere.

Returning to the home country

When a foreigner dies in the Netherlands, certain steps need to be taken before they can be flown to their home country. This generally includes embalming the body, preparing a coffin, organising a service, and communicating with embassies in the country of destination. The deceased is usually at the mortuary for 2-3 days before being flown to their final resting place. The process can sometimes take longer though. ‘When an asylum seeker dies and doesn’t have a passport or other papers, we need to investigate whether they really are who they said they were. Did they really come from that country? Is there any record of them? It requires some detective work.’

Final farewell

Mortuarium Schiphol provides a place for family to either see their deceased loved one as soon as possible after landing in the country or say proper farewell before they are flown out. This is the part of the job that Ben finds most rewarding. ‘It’s fulfilling to be able to organise the best possible goodbye for the deceased and their families.’ The mortuary has a room especially for services and they collaborate with various religious and spiritual leaders so that these services are carried out in the appropriate way. Everything is done with the utmost respect.

From odd job to career

A question you may still be asking yourself is how one ends up in this line of work. ‘It was an in-between job that grew into something much bigger,’ Ben explains. After selling his own company in 1990, he started doing odd jobs as a chauffeur for weddings and later for funerals too. That developed into working for a funeral transport company and then for Mortuarium Schiphol, which was established in 1997 (making Schiphol the world’s first airport with its own mortuary, by the way). It’s a busy job and certainly not always easy, but Ben has been doing it with pride all these years and plans to do so until he retires.