I don't think that would have been the usual way to do it. We think nothing these days of embalming and sticking people in a cooler and all that, but keeping someone on ice costs a lot - even these days in most places there are not the resources for that. (My Mom died in Korea last March and they were charging me $67 every day her body was in the freezer drawer.)
Now, they did reinvent embalming during the American Civil War so they could ship bodies home, so it's not impossible. A very rich family who had very good reason to want a particular person at the funeral might wait, but I think most people just emotionally don't like to wait to get a funeral out of the way.
Far as I know there was a usual laying out of three days to give them a little time to wake up if they were just in a coma, but if it were cold and everyone was pressed for time I suppose they might leave it until the weekend.
In New England a century ago when the ground was frozen in midwinter they would stack the coffins in a crypt to inter when the ground thawed, but the services and gathering were held early on and the interment was only attended by the gravedigger and maybe a few other interested parties, not an event.
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Date: 2014-12-09 06:43 pm (UTC)Now, they did reinvent embalming during the American Civil War so they could ship bodies home, so it's not impossible. A very rich family who had very good reason to want a particular person at the funeral might wait, but I think most people just emotionally don't like to wait to get a funeral out of the way.
Far as I know there was a usual laying out of three days to give them a little time to wake up if they were just in a coma, but if it were cold and everyone was pressed for time I suppose they might leave it until the weekend.
In New England a century ago when the ground was frozen in midwinter they would stack the coffins in a crypt to inter when the ground thawed, but the services and gathering were held early on and the interment was only attended by the gravedigger and maybe a few other interested parties, not an event.