A Dorval woman has finally received a long-awaited package from Canada Post containing her late husband's ashes.
Shirley Tricker mailed the package to Northern Ireland on Jan. 29, but the post office failed to tell her that the U.K. Royal Mail does not handle human ashes.
The package could not be located until last Friday, when it turned up in Mississauga.
When Tricker finally received the package, it arrived water damaged with a badly damaged family heirloom: a rosary that belonged to her late husband Michael Carty. The rosary, which was splintered when it arrived, was intended to be part of a funeral for him in Northern Ireland on Feb 5. The ceremony was drastically altered because Carty’s family did not receive the urn.
Carty was 78 years old when he died of a heart attack while sleeping in the cab of his truck on Jan. 13. He drove a truck for 52 years after coming to Canada from Northern Ireland at 18.
Tricker said her husband always hung his father's rosary in the trucks he drove over long distances. It had belonged to his father.
The widow said she is upset Canada Post did not initially inform her that she could not mail her husband's ashes, but is more disappointed that they have treated the matter so lightly. Not only could the box not be located for days, she said, but added that customer service treated her badly.
