Pauline Tobin’s life’s work is death.
The 55-year-old mother-of-three is one of Australia’s leading morticians, and she has prepared more bodies for funerals that she can remember.
Only rarely – like dealing with victims of Australia’s Black Saturday bushfires that killed 173 people in the most horrific way – does it get to her.
Instead, she sees her calling as helping family members deal with the shock of losing a loved one by preparing them to be seen one last time in a way that resembles the person they were.
Where some would see it as a gruesome task, Mrs Tobin, a former nurse, sees it as an important part of the grieving process.
Melbourne mortician and embalmer, Pauline Tobin, 55, pictured in her mortuary, has embalmed thousands of people
Ms Tobin entered the business 18 years ago – after working for years as a mental health nurse
Pictured here looking after a woman in her Melbourne mortuary – the machine at the foot of the table replaced blood in the body with embalming fluid
It takes three-four hours for a usual embalming, like the one pictured, but it can take days if reconstruction is needed
‘I will never forget this one man who came to me for help with his son,’ Mrs Tobin told Daily Mail Australia.
‘He had flown to Australia to identify the body, his son had been missing, been dead for quite some time and he said the sight of his dead, discoloured son had broken him.’
‘I met with his to tell him what I could do – he just said ‘if you can take away what I am seeing now I would be so grateful.’
Ms Tobin went to work, embalming the young man’s body, working to get rid of the haunting discolouration caused by death – and adding a healthy, plump look to his face.
She had to put light makeup on to cover the marks of the boy’s death.
When she presented the boy to his devastated parents, they felt a sense of relief and spent 45 minutes saying goodbye.
‘Now I am fixed – I can go on. I have the memory of my boy back,’ his father told Ms Tobin after seeing his son ‘sleeping’ in the casket.
Ms Tobin specialises in reconstruction – from working on people who have been hit by trains and are barely recognisable to putting victims of horrific crime or car accidents back together so their family can say their goodbyes.
‘I once had this mother whose son had been hit by a train,’ she said.
‘She had this horrible picture in her head of what her son must have looked like.’
The mortician put her skills to use, sewing the young man back together, rebuilding part of his body with modelling clay and wax before adding makeup to make it look like he was sleeping peacefully in his casket.
Embalming helps reduce discolouration caused by death as well as preserving the body and making it presentable
Ms Tobin studies each person before starting the process, picking the perfect vein and artery for the job and deciding on which embalming fluid to use
Ms Tobin readying her tools for work. First she sanitises the body then she preserves it before presenting it
The mortician in the fridge with three people she has been tasked with looking after until the burial
Bodies need to be embalmed before they are returned overseas or interstate – due to strict guidelines
‘When I showed her I told her I knew he wasn’t perfect but he had been respectfully put back together.
‘She cried and said at least she would not have horrible images of what he could have looked like.’
Ms Tobin believes a viewing can help with closure – and is a huge advocate for open-casket funerals.
‘Parents will forget who was at the funeral and the coffin they chose, but they will never forget the last time they saw their child.
‘If it is going help them accept the death and give them the opportunity to say goodbye I’m all for it.’
Ms Tobin has been embalming for 18 years after spending most of her adult life as a nurse – despite being born into a funeral-home family. ‘My beautiful dad never really wanted his little girl in the business,’ she said.
The mother-of-three made the decision to change careers after working in a mental hospital.
Ms Tobin used her very much alive husband Kevin to demonstrate how she uses photographs and measurements of a person’s face and body to reconstruct their features after death
Rulers become very important tools in the reconstruction process because she has to make sure everything sits as it would have in life
Ms Tobin would set the body’s eyes and mouth closed before presenting it to family and friends
‘About seven years before that I had seen an embalming take place. I was living on top of the funeral home at the time – my ex-husband was a funeral director.
‘The embalmer on duty sang out to me and asked me if the lady he was taking care of was jaundice or not.
‘This was the first time I had ever been out the back, I flipped open the door agreed that she was jaundiced, closed the door and left.
‘He managed to convince me to stay for the procedure – I thought he was magic at the end I just couldn’t believe the difference from death to when he presented her.
‘So I decided I would look into what I would need to do to study mortuary science.’
Wax, the same as that used in wax museums, is used in reconstructions where there are pieces of the body missing
The mortician is seen here demonstrating how she would sew a body together
Since that moment Ms Tobin’s journey as an embalmer has taken her across the world.
She has embalmed thousands of people over the years, working for a long time in her family’s business, one of Australia’s busiest funeral homes.
But now she is working from her own mortuary, focusing on helping smaller funeral homes and cases which require her expertise.
She admits she has seen some ‘not so pretty things’ but the Black Saturday bushfires stick out in her mind most.
‘The bushfires here were hard,’ she said.
The eyes, ears and nose are cleaned thoroughly as part of the sanitation process
Ms Tobin now specialises in reconstruction – she went to America to hone her skills and can now help families who lose loved ones in accidents
‘It was classed as a crime area and it took a long time to have the IDs done so it was almost eight weeks before the remains were released.
‘I remember going to sleep on the Friday night, closing my eyes and seeing the remains. It happened to my colleague as well. It really got to us, it was horrific.’
It can also be difficult to deal with caring for prominent people – especially those who become famous because of their death.
‘People will ask me how am I feeling in these situations but honestly I just block it out – I have a job to do.
‘I turn off the television and I don’t look at the newspapers – and when people ask if I hate the person who killed them – especially if it has been horrific – I just have to switch off.
‘I have a family out there who need me and I make a conscious effort not to own their grief.
‘In saying that I was helping dress a gorgeous 23-year-old, her parents were there with me and as I stepped out of the room I heard her step-dad crying, wailing.
makeup, bandages, lint rollers, scissors and lipstick make up some of the tools for the perfect presentation
The mortuary closely resembles an operating theatre with stainless steel tools sterelised before each use
foundation concealer and wax are all used in the presentation process
Coloured photographs of the person being embalmed are also used – this helps Ms Tobin get make-up right
Embalming should happen as close to the time of death as possible, according to the mortician, seen here with a coffin and client
Ms Tobin’s family are funeral operators – but her father never wanted his ‘little girl’ to be part of the family business
The mortician worked through the Black Saturday bush fires which ravaged Victoria – but says it was very difficult
‘I stepped out and had a bit of a blubber.’
But the funeral-director’s daughter admitted she can’t go to a service without crying which is what makes her better ‘out the back’.
Ms Tobin explained how in reconstruction situations modelling clay, wax like the type used in wax museums, and wire are used to help rebuild the dead.
The embalming process is used for each piece of the body in these cases and a different fluid is used so the skin is made hard enough to endure being sewn back together.
The skin is then airbrushed so the artificial sections match the body and then they are dressed and presented as usual.
Reconstructions can take days, according to Ms Tobin, but to embalm someone who has died from natural causes can take just three hours. It is best to embalm a person as close to the time of death as possible – because it stops discolouration of the features giving a more positive viewing experience.
Embalming rooms look much like an operating theatre – with stainless steel benches, bright overhead lights and an embalming machine similar to a machine used for blood infusions.
Sprays and tools on a trolly in the mortuary where Ms Tobin now runs her own business
Eye and mouth holders are used so the eyes do not naturally open and the mouth remains in shape once shut
Ms Tobin takes her duties very seriously and believes an open casket can help relatives heal