Cremation urn found and relatives traced…
Firstly I can’t believe this story made the national press in the States or in the UK. A 90 year old cremation urn has been found washed up on the coast of Oregon, USA. And the search was on to find a rightful home.
Alex Reed found the dented copper cremation urn whilst clambering over rocks at the seaside. First clue – the funeral urn was engraved with ‘William George Kennedy 1870-1925′. The young chap then enlisted the help of a local funeral director in Astoria to help track down the decedents.
The funeral director said: ‘When he showed up with an urn that was 87 years old and looked like it had been to hell and back, I can’t even tell you what went through my mind.’…. let me guess wow an old dented urn how unusual! To be fair the lad must given him a clue before he brought it along. If he’d turned up with a stuffed antelope or some rainbow coloured beetroot then perhaps the phrase could have applied – or am I just being a bit British about this?
So it got some media interest, which attracted numerous offers of help from genealogists and volunteers.
It turns out the deceased was an expert gardener from Canterbury in Kent (poetic don’t you think?). He had moved to the States initially Oregon then Washington DC.
They have tracked down some relatives, one in the UK, ‘a great granddaughter of Mr Kennedy living in England who is ‘thrilled’ with the discovery’. Thrilled, you know I bet she was, wonder what emotion now occupies that space? Not being mean or cynical here, just …well, what is she supposed to do with them now? Are they now a personality and thus require reverence and prominence within the house? After all that can she put them back in the water?
There are number of other claimants, the most plausible was from someone who said it was a distant relative – an uncle to a former mother-in-law. And it appears the cremation urn was kept in a cupboard until they thought it was time to ‘set them free’ where upon ‘They went off in a boat about 50 miles off Astoria and then dropped him in [the water]‘ about 30 to 35 years ago.
Now those superstitious among us may think that the deceased obviously wanted to kept and loved on tera ferma. Those more scientifically minded may think it was not a great plan to cast a watertight floating durable container into the sea expecting it to disappear! And so to the moral of the story – make sure the urn does what it is supposed to or buy one that does – have I mentioned we stock suitable products?
One more thing they even have a video! Well here it is …
Tags: cremation urn