there was the young lad i work with, he done the first coffin, myself, i done the second, my boss who got the same payment as us for standing up top, taking bones from us and handing them to the funeral directors, who put the bones in body bags, also present were three rabbis, one officially and two because they hadn't seen an exhumation before. Sometimes a home office official will attend, but not in my case.
The coffins where in very good condition to look at, the lids had bowed under the weight of earth, but were still intact and needed wrenched open in the best horror movie style, but they where almost up to the lids in water so i doubt they would have withstood any attempt at lifting them out, so it was a case of groping about in muddy water till you got a bone, when all the major bones had been collected you fished the small bones that where floating on the surface of the water out (finger and foot bones i assume) then we had to scoop globules of white stuff (fat?) that was also on the surface out and pick up a few bits of coffin, the bits of coffin also went into the body bags.
it was a bit creepy, when i picked up the skull i sort of went into auto pilot, my brain was thinking "you are holding a skull, you are holding a skull" while my body kept working on its own, i registered someone saying "mind the jaw" but i didn't mind the jaw as i was busy thinking "you are holding a skull"
We started at 7am and by 10am the three of us where having tea and doughnuts in the kitchen, having a nervous laugh and getting ready to go home, our work for the day done.
I heard unofficially today there is an exhumation for next month, but we hear that every so often and it has never came too fruition, and i hope next months one is the same, as its a burial we done last year, bones i do not mind, you can try to convince yourself it wasn't a real person, i am not sure how i would react to a still runny corpse.