Heard an interesting story at the Chamber of Commerce meeting today and thought I’d share.
The local funeral home director was talking about some of the issues with the now-common practice of taking a loved one’s cremains home and storing them.
As an example, he told the story of a person who bought a house and went to put in a new garden. The bobcat dug up a small rectangular box with a funeral home’s name inscribed on it. They called the funeral home and got the director. He asked who they bought the house from and was able to bring up the records.
It turns out the prior owners had lost their daughter, had her remains cremated, and took them home with them. She liked playing in the yard, so they buried her cremains there. Years later, they got divorced, both moved out, and sold the house. The funeral home director was able to find phone numbers for both of them.
He called the ex-wife first. She yelled and swore at him for “digging up” her daughter. He tried to explain that he wasn’t the one who did it, it was the new owner. Also, they were supposed to disclose that there were human remains buried on the property before they sold the house. Well, she refused to do anything about it. Her daughter liked playing in the back yard, so she wanted her cremains to stay buried there.
So he called the ex-husband. Got hung up on. Called back. The guy swore at him. Said if he wanted to talk to him, he could talk to his lawyer.
He called the new owner back and told them what had happened. Told them that if they wanted the family members to do anything about their daughter’s remains, they would likely have to sue them.
He said they decided to re-bury the cremains farther back in the yard, near the property line, where there was a bit of woods. They’ll have to disclose that if they ever want to sell the house, but that’s something they’ll worry about if they ever decide to sell.
The local funeral home director was talking about some of the issues with the now-common practice of taking a loved one’s cremains home and storing them.
As an example, he told the story of a person who bought a house and went to put in a new garden. The bobcat dug up a small rectangular box with a funeral home’s name inscribed on it. They called the funeral home and got the director. He asked who they bought the house from and was able to bring up the records.
It turns out the prior owners had lost their daughter, had her remains cremated, and took them home with them. She liked playing in the yard, so they buried her cremains there. Years later, they got divorced, both moved out, and sold the house. The funeral home director was able to find phone numbers for both of them.
He called the ex-wife first. She yelled and swore at him for “digging up” her daughter. He tried to explain that he wasn’t the one who did it, it was the new owner. Also, they were supposed to disclose that there were human remains buried on the property before they sold the house. Well, she refused to do anything about it. Her daughter liked playing in the back yard, so she wanted her cremains to stay buried there.
So he called the ex-husband. Got hung up on. Called back. The guy swore at him. Said if he wanted to talk to him, he could talk to his lawyer.
He called the new owner back and told them what had happened. Told them that if they wanted the family members to do anything about their daughter’s remains, they would likely have to sue them.
He said they decided to re-bury the cremains farther back in the yard, near the property line, where there was a bit of woods. They’ll have to disclose that if they ever want to sell the house, but that’s something they’ll worry about if they ever decide to sell.
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