When forensic cleaner Carlos Lopez opens the door to every new assignment, it’s not the repulsive smells and sights that shock him, but the cold portrait of loneliness.
For him, arriving at work means witnessing the final moments of a deceased person — what they ate before their death, what their last supermarket purchase was, and whether the house was clean or messy when they died.
“It demands physical, emotional and spiritual resilience; it’s tough,” he explains.
“It shocks you and makes you [appreciate] life a little more because seeing people who die alone makes you wonder about their family and loved ones; it hits you hard.”
Source: Getty Images/arvitalya
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes
For forensic cleaners, assignments related to cleaning houses where someone has died alone has increased.
In 2019, the gruesome discovery of a 55-year-old man who had perished alone in his home some 15 months prior made headlines. The expiration date of the milk found in his fridge was April 2018, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2018 there were more than 158,000 deaths in this country.
Although the exact number of people who die alone in Australia is unknown, these cases seem to be reported in the media more often.
Carlos, a Salvadoran migrant, also says he’s encountering them more frequently.
He tells SBS Spanish that he regularly works in houses where men have died alone from advanced illnesses or after suffering a sudden heart attack.
But Carlos insists that these gloomy scenes don’t compare with the imprint of witnessing firsthand how the occupant of that house, who may have migrated to Australia in search of a better life, marked his final breaths.
The grandfather who died alone on Christmas
One of the cases he remembers the most was that of an elderly man who was discovered eight weeks after his death, just after Christmas and New Year’s.
"It was a December death and he was supposedly a father, a grandfather and had relatives," Carlos says.
"What shocked me most, most of all was that it happened during December and New Year’s, and the old man was dead.
"What happened to the family? It took eight weeks [to find him], what happened? In December nobody spoke to the old man, New Year’s had gone by, the ‘Merry Christmas’ had passed, and so that [notion of total abandonment] hit me quite a bit.”
Forensic cleaner, Carlos López. Source: Supplied
The last homage
Carlos tries to not get heavily invested in the deceased person’s life story.
To avoid becoming overwhelmed, he tries to look at their belongings as little as possible; especially the photos, as they tell the intimate story of a person and capture their moments of happiness.
But at the same time, he and his team of forensic cleaners offer the deceased a last courtesy.
"I have [a ritual] that I feel is beautiful for the human being or the person who has died, and that is, if they have a stereo, I always try to play the last CD or tape they had when we are cleaning," Carlos confesses.
They hope their homage grants the person's spirit the joy that perhaps they lacked when they died.
“It is a way for us to feel better, and for the other person, or their spirit, or whatever is there, to feel happy.”
When it hits me hard, I have a couple of beers, I’m not gonna lie
Despite the masks and protective suits, forensic cleaners are not shielded from their emotions.
They learn to control their bodily reactions when encountering death, but the experience of regularly having to dispose of clients’ belongings takes a toll.
"Like when you have to throw away things that ... are valuable or sentimental, like photos," Carlos explains.
“There are many photos that we cannot clean because they are made of paper and they have absorbed the smell. We can try to remove the smell, but occasionally we can’t.
“We throw away the person's belongings, their life history and it is very sad. I witness the story of when grandpa was young, he had children and grandchildren, and I have to throw that away.”
‘Don't let people die alone’
Carlos attributes the rise of lonely deaths to individualism, family neglect and contemporary society’s tendency to abandon the elderly.
It is a worrying situation in Australia, a country that has welcomed hundreds of thousands of migrants with few family members in the country, and limited networks.
Carlos says his experience has taught him to work harder on his interpersonal relationships. He says he values life and solidarity more, so he makes a conscious effort to communicate more often with his loved ones.
"I think, 'oh, my friend is a little bit sick and he has no family, I'm going to call him’. I place a higher value on life now and appreciate loved ones a little more.
"We see life differently here in Australia because here we are in a context where we come to work and work, and we tend to forget about loved ones and friends who are alone, and so I’ve thought a lot about this,” Carlos reflects.
“I recommend building closer relationships with families who are alone; it is very sad to see these cases of people who die like this (lonely deaths)."
