Post Office Loses COVID-19 Patient’s Ashes For Several Weeks

A Pennsylvania woman is speaking out after a post office lost her mother’s ashes for several weeks, forcing her to get the news involved.

Joanne DeGaetano of Bensalem reached out to NBC10 Responds after getting the Post Office runaround before they admitted that they could not locate her mother, Ruth’s, ashes. Ruth passed away in December from COVID-19 while in a New Jersey nursing home. According to DeGaetano, the remains were shipped by the United States Postal Service on December 28th and should have made it to her the following day.

“It was enough to lose my mom, but not to have her ashes. It’s a hard pill to swallow,” DeGaetano said. The woman tried to locate the ashes for weeks before contacting the news station. She had hoped to have her mother’s remains in mid-January to commemorate what would have been Ruth’s 90th birthday.

“Just all of a sudden, I went okay— something is not right— I should have had her long by now,” DeGaetano stated.

DeGaetano says she reached out to multiple post offices in North Jersey. The funeral director also tried to help by emailing the Post Office complaints department. No one knew where the remains were. Eventually, someone with the Post Office contacted her for the first time after NBC10 Responds got involved with the case. However, the representative did not provide any clues as to where the ashes were.

“At one point, what she said to me was that– it appears your mother’s package has gone into a black hole.”

NBC10 Responds continued to press the Post Office, though they still could not explain how they managed to lose the ashes.

After two weeks of relentless searching with the news station’s help, DeGaetano finally received a phone call from the Post Office saying that the ashes had been located and were on the way to her. She rushed home to meet the Bensalem Postmaster, who delivered the box to her home in his own car.

“We are very pleased that we were able to deliver the remains to the rightful owner and again sincerely apologize for the delay. Thanks again to all for your assistance,” a Post Office spokesperson said.

DeGaetano got emotional as she thanked NBC10 Responds for their relentless work on locating her mother’s remains.

“A lot of emotions today,” she said. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

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