I ran across the following article tonight on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/08/19/problem.of.unclaimed.ashes.ap/index.html
I remember when the funeral director called me to pickup my father's ashes. He was very insistent that I come that very same day. When I arrived at the funeral home, I mentioned to him that I thought it was a bit strange that he was so insistent, saying:
"Of course I'm going to pick them up. It's not like I'm going to just leave them there."
To which he replied, "Let me show you something..."
The old man escorted me down into the dimly lit basement, and in the back of the room were rows of freestanding shelves from the floor to the ceiling. There were hundreds of small cardboard boxes on the shelves, each with a white sticker bearing a name and date of death. He pointed out that the smaller boxes were the ashes of children.
Who the fuck leaves behind the remains of their child?
It's kind of morbid I suppose but I can still picture the man standing beside the shelves in that basement, a caretaker for the unwanted remains...
