Member-only story
30 Years Later, It’s Still a Mystery
Was he really cremated?
My father died in November, 1994. As a Navy veteran from WWII, he was entitled to a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, but since he had not been an officer, he had to be cremated and his ashes placed in a "cubby hole” in walls in the cemetery, not buried on the grounds.
He and his second wife were living in Georgia when he died, far from my brother in Maryland and my sister and me in New York. She made all the final arrangements for his military funeral. My brother added a firemen’s funeral, since Dad had been proud of being a volunteer firefighter, and my brother as a firefighter could make those arrangements.
The day before the funeral, we all met at my brother’s house, including Dad’s wife with his remains. When she wasn’t in the room, my sister insisted on opening the container to see what Dad had been reduced to. I thought it was rather gruesome, but after she’d unwrapped the soft fabric bag (which looked a lot like an old bathrobe Dad had years ago) she opened the what looked like a Tupperware container. Inside was a plastic bag tied with a twist tie. She opened that, and we all looked at what looked like kitty litter. We all agreed that that’s what it looked like, and since we’d never seen cremated remains before, we didn’t question it.
