Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living

by Robert A. Jensen

Overview

The owner of the world’s leading disaster management company chronicles the unseen world behind the yellow tape, and explores what it means to be human after a lifetime of caring for the dead.

You have seen Robert A. Jensen—you just never knew it. As the owner of the world’s largest disaster management company, he has spent most of his adult life responding to tragedy. From the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, and the Bali bombings, to the 2004 South Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haitian Earthquake, and the Grenfell Tower Fire, Jensen has been at the practical level of international incidents, assisting with the recovery of bodies, identifying victims, and repatriating and returning their personal effects to the surviving family members. He is also, crucially, involved in the emotional recovery that comes after a disaster: helping guide the families, governments, and companies involved, telling them what to expect and managing the unmanageable. As he explains, “If journalists write the first rough draft of history, I put the punctuation on the past.”

Personal Effects is an unsparing, up-close look at the difficult work Jensen does behind the yellow tape and the lessons he learned there. The chronicle of an almost impossible and grim job, Personal Effects also tells Jensen’s own story—how he came to this line of work, how he manages the chaos that is his life, and the personal toll the repeated exposure to mass death brings, in becoming what GQ called “the best at the worst job in the world.”

A rare glimpse into a world we all see but many know nothing about, Personal Effects is an inspiring and heartwarming story of survival and the importance of moving forward, Jensen allows his readers to see over his shoulder as he responds to disaster sites, uncovers the deceased, and cares for families to show how a strong will and desire to do good can become a path through the worst the world can throw at us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250267993
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,012,187
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Robert A. Jensen is Chairman of Kenyon International Emergency Services, the global leader in crisis management and mass fatality response. He has spent most of his adult life responding to such events.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Opposite of Meaning 9

2 Luck and Time 24

3 What Kind of a Person? 30

4 This Is Haiti 41

5 What's in a Name? 53

6 Lost and Found 60

7 Picking Up the Pieces 75

8 Sunken Treasure 87

9 The Terrorist Attacks 99

10 Death and Truth 116

11 Preparing for the Next (But Not the Last) Disaster 124

12 Known Only to God-And Science 138

13 Mass Graves and Conflict Zones 152

14 The Science and Emotion of Identification 174

15 DNA and the CSI Effect 188

16 A World of Pain 202

17 The Wave 216

18 Another Day at the Office 228

19 London's Towering Inferno 245

20 The Resilience Factor 257

21 What I've Collected 270

Epilogue 277

Acknowledgments 283

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

08/02/2021

In this gripping albeit grisly memoir, Jensen (Mass Fatality and Casualty Incidents) shares highlights of his career in disaster response. Now the chairman and owner of Kenyon International Emergency Services, Jensen’s first experience with “sudden, large-scale catastrophes” came in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, where he served in the U.S. Army’s mortuary unit. He describes the painstaking work of trying to match severed body parts, and explains how disaster response entails managing the needs of victims, their families, and the investigation. Gruesome details and corporate indifference abound as Jensen recounts disasters such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the Grenfell Tower fire in London. He advises readers to take good care of key documents, including birth and marriage certificates, that are necessary to settle an estate, but claims not to reflect much on the fleeting nature of life or his own need to “bring order to chaos.” Readers with a strong stomach will be fascinated by this up-close look at what it means to take charge of the response to an unspeakable tragedy. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Robert Jensen's revelations of recovering the dead create a gripping and page-turning experience, indeed. But what stood out to me was his deep concern, respect for and commitment to giving the proper tools to those left behind; the ones forced to pick up the pieces in their grief and cobble them together into a new life. By showing—and not merely telling—them that their loved ones will not be forgotten, he plays a role in alleviating their suffering, and teaches us all of the importance of doing the same." —Rebecca Soffer, coauthor of Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.

"Gruesome details and corporate indifference abound as Jensen recounts disasters such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the Grenfell Tower fire in London . . . . Readers with a strong stomach will be fascinated by this up-close look at what it means to take charge of the response to an unspeakable tragedy." —Publishers Weekly

"Personal Effects is a moving and fascinating glimpse at what comes after the worst has happened . . . Ultimately Personal Effects offers reassurance: even after a mass tragedy causes the total breakdown of all the systems we take for granted, order and dignity are possible. A crucial read for anyone who dwells on worst case scenarios."

—Lauren Larson, features editor at Texas Monthly

"Robert Jensen delivers a powerful and riveting book of the toughest work a kind person can do. I could not stop reading until I finished every word, and then with tears streaming down my face, In the midst of the most horrible tragedies, there is one person you want to be there—Robert Jensen."

—Mary Schiavo, Former Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation and CNN Aviation/Transportation Analyst

"Jensen has lived a life few of could fathom, or frankly endure. And for this we should be grateful. Through his face to face encounters with unmeasurable carnage, we are taught the tenets of survival, perseverance, and compassion."

—Patrick Smith, bestselling author of Cockpit Confidential

From the Publisher

10/01/2021

Have you ever thought about what happens after a mass fatality event? How do the dead get recovered and counted? How do victims' personal effects, like a pair of glasses, reach their family? In his first book, Jensen, who takes care of these details as a profession, offers his experiences, lessons he's learned, and an interesting behind-the-scenes glimpse into a grim but necessary world. Putting sensitivity and privacy first and foremost, Jensen has written an unparalleled memoir about the aftermath of tragedies like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the Grenfell Tower Fire in 2017, and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, all of which he has dealt with as the owner of the world's largest disaster management company. Readers are invited to see every aspect of such events, including recovery of bodies, family assistance, and prolific and painstaking research. He shares best practices for post-disaster management and insights about specific events and mass fatalities in general. VERDICT Jensen's thoroughly engrossing personal account invites readers to witness an almost unseen arena of disaster management.—Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Library Journal