<THEME MUSIC>

 

Kamilah Kashanie (KK): All season, we’ve been hearing about pivotal moments in people’s lives – that one thing that changed everything.

 

For our last of the season, we’ll meet twin brothers Marvin and Melvin Morgan. They’ve really got two moments that set their course… The first happened back in 1954… on the day they were born… 

 

Marvin: Mama called Daddy and told him to find two names because she had two twin sons. On his way to the hospital he saw Marvin and Melvin Funeral Homes. He said, ‘I got the two names’.

 

Melvin: I remember that. [laughs]

 

KK: The next moment came twelve years later… while they were visiting family in North Carolina.

Marvin: So remember, we went to go look for great-grandma’s grave?

Melvin: Never forget that. We were walking past the cemetery. And our cousin –

Marvin: He pointed out, and said, ’she’s over there somewhere.’

Melvin: Right, ’She’s over there somewhere.’ 

Down South, the African Americans cemeteries [were] separate from the Caucasian cemeteries. They were buried in unmarked graves. No headstone, no nothing. 

Marvin: And I was really disturbed by that. I said that one day, we’re going to see that people be buried right.

KK: The Morgan brothers kept that promise – they BOTH became morticians… 

<MUSIC>

KK: What do we do with our time on earth? If we’re lucky enough, some of us find a calling…something we feel like we’re meant to do… 

 

For Melvin and Marvin, death became their life…and It also gave them a role in history.

 

It’s the StoryCorps Podcast from NPR. I’m Kamilah Kashanie.

 

<MUSIC>

 

KK: Before we dive back  in, you should know that this episode has some pretty graphic descriptions of death and a mention of suicide. 

 

KK: After that visit to the graveyard, Melvin and Marvin went back home to New York City, but the memory of that day stayed with them…and they started doing something a little outside of the norm for a couple of 12 year olds…. 

 

They started hanging around in funeral parlors…  

Melvin: You know, we were scared in the beginning. But it was a curiosity.

Marvin: I remember the first body, and the kid was no more than what? Nine or ten years old.

Melvin: He looked like a doll baby. And that’s the first time we ever saw a dead body. That’s when we first knew what death was. 

Marvin: You know, I remember one time I walked up to a coffin, and I was there by myself. And as I was walking up, I could have sworn I saw the lady move. So I went up on her, right. You know, I took my hand and started shaking her chin, [laughs] to see if she wake up. I never told nobody that.

KK: Eventually, Melvin and Marvin started doing chores like changing the flowers… setting up the chairs and taking out the trash… 

 

They dreamt about opening their own funeral parlor one day… but their plans were interrupted by the Vietnam War. 

 

When the brothers were 18, they were drafted and sent overseas. 

 

When they got back to the States they entered the workforce…Which one? You name it. They worked as a bartender, at Burger King, for the post office, at a VA hospital, even in the restaurant at the very top of the World Trade Center. 

 

But they never lost their fascination with the dead.

Everytime Marvin passed a funeral parlor – and if the doors were open – he’d walk through to give his blessing.

In August of 1999, he was in his 40’s… and opportunity knocked. He was working at a hospital in Queens, New York.

Marvin: I got lucky. It was a young lady down at the finance department, when I was working for human resources. So she came to my office, told me that there was an opening down at the morgue. So I went to my director and asked him, ‘I’d like to have a transfer’. And they said that there’s going to be a, you know, a decrease in salary if you take that position. And I explained to my director that it’s something I wanted to do.

KK: Marvin started training to become a mortuary technician for the Chief Examiner’s Office…which meant he’d be picking up bodies, traveling to crime scenes, assisting with autopsies, and then preparing bodies for burial or cremation.

Marvin: The first day. I get to the housecall and it’s a decomposed body. And the smell is there. It was like a horror movie. And I’m telling myself, can I do this job?

So when I got back to the morgue, I wanted to quit. I really did. 

The next day, they put me in the autopsy room. And all the tables was full and the bodies was open. So they asked me to open up the intestines. And that was the second day on the job. And I told myself then, I said this is my last day. 

KK: But Marvin kept going…

A couple years later, Melvin would follow his brother into the field… working at a different morgue at another New York hospital. Here’s Melvin.

Melvin: It was a heck of an experience to see my comrades cutting up a body with ease and not being frightened, which I was in the beginning. They just show me around and seeing an autopsy be performed, never knew how the inside of a body, the organs looked like. I didn’t know where the heart was. 

These scenes, how the body looks. It makes me think, how this person lived their life. It makes me think, what caused this person to die…When I opened up the body bag. That surprise will come to me. You know, deformed bodies, jumpers. I saw one with the head down here in the leg up here. And when I see that, it just comes to me. Is your job. 

And I knew that I had an important job to do.The fear disappears.

Melvin: We have viewings, where family members come down to mourn their loved ones. And we quietly speak with them. 

I get emotional, you know, to see them going through their sorrow. I pull myself together and act as though everything is alright. And one thing you would say you know is, you know, ‘Don’t worry the person is in a better place.’ Sometimes you can say that.

KK: Every time a body came through the doors, Melvin and Marvin were there… 

 

But some days have stayed with them more than others… like one Tuesday in September, 2001.

 

Marvin: My neighbor knocked on the door. And told us to turn on the TV. That the World Trade Center was on fire. So we got to the roof. And then as we was looking, we saw one building go down.

So I ran downstairs to call my job and ask to come in.

KK: After the break Marvin and Melvin play their role in history.

Stay with us.

 

<MUSIC>

KK: As a mortician for the city, part of Marvin’s job was to be at ground zero… he was there 12 hours a day… for ten months… 

Marvin: I was one of the first down there and the last to leave. 

Everybody down there worked together. You had the army, the police department, you had a fire department. It was like everybody was like family down there. 

And every time when they found a deceased, the whole grounds would stop. Next thing I know, they told everybody to stand at attention. And then as I was coming out with the body, you had the firemen, the police department, you had the people that work there, everybody, they started saluting. When somebody passed away in the military, they would play taps. 

Melvin: Right

Marvin: It was really something. 

And there was many, many taps. 

<MUSIC>

KK: New York City has been the grounds for some of the most heartbreaking moments of the 21st Century.

They worked through every major event in the most iconic city in the world…

At least every event that included death. 

And then COVID hit…

Melvin: We were at the epicenter of this pandemic. Normally we have six or seven bodies in the morgue. But then came to ten. And after that went up to 20. And between March 15th and April 1st, within those two weeks period, it grew to 40 bodies a day. You know, bodies coming from the elevator all the way down the corridor, through the hallway, to the morgue. Lined up. 

It was hard, especially with the ones that you knew.

I had friends that died, right there. Coworkers, the people that work in hospital. And they all done went to the freezer. 

And I used to play music for them, inside the morgue. And I’d be talking to them and things of that sort. Don’t think I’m crazy now. 

One of the girls I say, you know, ‘Your kids are going to be alright. I made sure they be taken care of’. You know, my man, Derek, I said ‘Don’t worry about it, Derek, your wife is gonna be alright. We’re going to take care of your son’. I be saying stuff like that. 

We have their pictures on the memorial section of the wall. And every time I see those pictures a teardrop. It will always bother me to the day I die. Always.

 

KK: You might be wondering, how could anyone keep doing this job?

Marvin and Melvin have asked themselves that same question…

Marvin: Some of these cases, you know, you take it home and it sits with you. You know, there’s a lot of cases that sit with me to the day. I would go home and I would sit down for about 10 or 15 minutes in silence, you know, to get my thoughts together, get myself together. 

I’ll tell you what kept me going. I would talk to you and you would talk it out with me so I can get over it.

Melvin: And vice versa. The same that you do with me.

All the time, we discuss each other’s problems, and we solve those problems together. Marvin, if it wasn’t for, you know, I’d don’t know where I’d be at right now.

And to be honest if something happened to my twin brother. Even though I do this job, I don’t know if I’d be able to take it. 

Marvin: Yup.

Melvin: That’s why I want to go out first. [laughs].

How has this work made you look at life differently?

Marvin: Before I started, life didn’t mean that much to me. It caused me to appreciate life more, to live longer. After experiencing all these deaths it caused me to think more about enjoying life, before I go.

<MUSIC>

KK: The brothers have given more than 60 years of combined service to  New York City.

Marvin retired in 2022… and Melvin’s last day on the job was just a month before this podcast was released.

Marvin: So how do you feel about retiring, Melvin?

Melvin: I feel good. We’re gonna have a good time in retirement, Marvin. We are. 

We had a heck of a life together. Ups and downs. And sideways.

I would never trade anybody.

Marvin: Yeah, ‘bout to say the same thing.

Melvin: I would never trade nobody in the place of you. Yeah, you’re my best friend. Always be.

 

Marvin: You know, this young lady asked me the other day, she asked me about death. She said, well, am I going to heaven? I said, I don’t know.

Melvin: No one can tell you where you came from. No one can tell you why you’re here. And no one sure can tell you where you’re going. 

And I don’t know who God is, but I know we was put here for a reason. What that reason is, it’s up to you to define it.  

I don’t have too much time left on this earth. I think about how I’m gonna go out, which way I’m gonna go out. 

Marvin: Yeah.

Melvin: And I just hope I go out the right way.

 

KK: Marvin and Melvin now live together in the same apartment in Queens, New York.

Next month, they’re planning a trip back to their family home in Gastonia, North Carolina… 

They hope to go back and find their great grandmother’s burial site, and leave a marker for her resting place.

That’s all for this episode –– and this season –– of the StoryCorps podcast.

 

It was produced by Eleanor Vassili, who is our Senior Producer, and edited by Jasmyn Morris. Our Associate Producer is Max Jungreis. Our technical director is Jarrett Floyd. Erica Anderson is our fact-checker. Michael Garofalo is our Executive Producer. Special thanks to Bella Gonzalez and Mitra Bonshahi.

 

To see what music we used in the episode… go to StoryCorps – dot – org… where you can also check out original artwork created for this season by Lyne Lucien.

 

We’ll be back in the Fall with a 20th anniversary special series… celebrating two decades of stories from everyday people…. 

 

For the StoryCorps podcast, I’m Kamilah Kashanie.