'It's not just a package': Widow devastated after husband's ashes get lost in the mail
A widow who recently lost her husband of more than 40 years has expressed her grief after her husband’s ashes were lost in the mail.
Mark Colby died on August 31 after battling cancer. He and his wife Mary had been married for 44 years.
Ms Colby, from Chicago, explained to CBS 2 she sent out three urns of Mr Colby’s ashes; one to his son in Georgia, one to his sister in Florida and one to his best friend in New York.
However, the US Postal Service lost the package set for New York, devastating the family.
“It’s not just a package,” said Ms Colby, providing a receipt to the local news station.
“There’s a reason it’s supposed to have special handling.”
Ms Colby paid US$36 for the urn to be delivered to New York the next day. According to the USPS website, cremated remains may only be shipped using Priority Mail Express.
The postal service also requires parcels of cremated remains to have a certain label - Label 139 - to “ensure visibility and importance of the package contents”.
While Ms Colby did everything right, the package failed to turn up at the expected time.
Thankfully, four days later the urn was delivered - much to her relief - though she described the USPS workers she dealt with as “brusque and abrupt”.
USPS has since apologised to the Colby family in a statement given to CBS 2.
“We work very hard to offer good service to our customers, and it is genuinely disappointing to hear about instances when we simply do not meet the needs of our customers,” a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said Ms Colby was entitled to a refund.
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