Joni Bakaradze died 18 years ago, at the age of 22, but instead of burying him in a cemetery, his family decided to keep his body preserved so that his son–who was just two at the time of his death–could see his father's face.

For the first four years after his death, Joni's mother, Tsiuri Kvaratskhelia, used embalming fluid to preserve Joni's body, but after having a dream in which someone told her to use vodka instead, the woman from Bashi village, Georgia, switched to spirit liquid poultices. Tsiuri used them every night to prevent the corpse from turning black.

During the first ten years, Tsiuri changed her Joni's clothes on his birthdays, but as she got older, her illnesses prevented her from taking care of him the way she used to. She says the lack of care quickly becomes visible on his body, but as soon as she used her alcohol-based embalming formula, his face turned white again.

Bakaradze's body is being kept in a wooden coffin fitted with a viewing window in the lid.

Tsiuri says her grandson, now aged 20, has seen his father's preserved body and believes his grandmother made the right decision.