An Ohio woman's cremated remains were supposed to be delivered to her husband but didn't arrive as scheduled or in time for her funeral, and now the U.S. Postal Service is trying to figure out what happened to the package, according to UPI.com
Eighty-year-old Barbara Kirkendall died Nov. 5 at a Cleveland hospital, apparently because of a blood infection, and her remains were sent to her Columbus-area home after the autopsy and cremation, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Norman Kirkendall was supposed to receive his wife's ashes by noon Saturday under a money-back, Priority Mail Express 1-Day guarantee, according to The Dispatch.
"I was up at 5 o'clock in the morning, just waiting," Norman Kirkendall said, The Dispatch reported. Kirkendall told the newspaper he waited for hours, but the package never showed up.
Kirkendall said the planned military burial in Dayton is postponed until the ashes are found, UPI.com reported.
"I feel like I've lost her," Kirkendall said of his wife of 61 years, according to the Dispatch. Kirkendall and his wife met at an Air Force base in Mississippi when he was an instructor and she was among his students, according to The Dispatch.
Her remains had been shipped to Columbus and signed out for local delivery, the newspaper reported, but what happened after that is a mystery, The Dispatch reported.
Postal Service spokesman David Van Allen said a "vigilant search" is being conducted for the package, even though Kirkendall's family already attended a memorial service Thursday without the remains, according to The Dispatch.
