Elderly Mom Shares Her Heartbreak as Postal Service Lost 'Cremation Pendant' with Her Son’s Ashes

A 69-year-old mother was devastated after a postal service lost a cremation pendant containing her son’s ashes.

“My mom is absolutely gutted,” said Paul Osborn, 38, who used the recorded delivery service to send a necklace with some of his brother Stuart’s ashes.

“After his funeral we scattered his ashes in the cemetery but my sister Sarah kept some and put them in a pendant shaped like an angel wing."

Stuart, a bachelor with no children, died of sepsis at the age of 47. Paul had his ashes delivered to his mother in Great Yarmouth.

The package arrived three weeks late, and the envelope had been ripped open. The pendant was missing, breaking the elderly mother’s heart.

Woman holding her head | Photo: Pexels

GRIEVING MOTHER WAS DEVASTATED

“She was so thrilled to be getting a little bit of Stuart she could keep close to her,” Paul said. “She’s devastated that it’s gone and it’s even worse not knowing where it is. We don’t know if it’s been stolen or if it’s still rattling round in the system somewhere.”

Paul added: “I thought recorded delivery would guarantee it would be safe but Royal Mail have been useless, they didn’t even apologize until after The Sun got involved.”

The delivery service sent the grieving family flowers and a check for $66, “which is a bit of a joke to be honest,” Paul said.

"GOT SENTIMENTAL VALUE"

Stuart died in his sleep in 2016, when he was living with his mother. It was her who found him after he died.

“After his funeral we scattered his ashes in the cemetery but my sister Sarah kept some and put them in a pendant shaped like an angel wing. She recently said she’d like mum to have it and I said I’d make sure she got it,” said Paul, a dad of four who runs a house clearance firm.

Woman covering her face with hands | Photo: Pexels

Paul wrapped the pendant in two jiffy bags and posted it in recorded delivery from his local post office in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, to his mother’s address in Great Yarmouth.

“It’s only got sentimental value. “That’s why we’re so upset. It’s not like you can just go out and buy a new one,” Paul lamented.

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