DEAR ABBY: My nephew "George" -- who dumped his wife and children for a barmaid -- died recently. He was dead broke, so my sister paid for his funeral. I didn't attend, but I was told that George's cremated remains were put in a whiskey bottle by the barmaid, and the bottle was going to be buried in my mother's grave.
Advertisement
Why my sister, his siblings and his kids went along with this idea I'll never know. None of us were raised that way. I found out about it only after the service and put a stop to it. As far as I'm concerned, they could have buried him in a condom, but not in my mother's grave! Was I wrong to put a stop to this travesty? -- DISGUSTED UNCLE
DEAR DISGUSTED UNCLE: No, you weren't. Your sister, nieces and nephews may have agreed because it seemed like a low-cost way to dispose of George's remains. But I'll bet they didn't know the cemetery would charge a hefty fee for a second interment.
Because your nephew spent his life with a woman who worked in a bar, there's a certain symmetry to the idea of a whiskey bottle being used as his urn. I was told of a widow who did the same thing with her husband's ashes -- and then she had the bottle made into a lamp because her husband "lit up her life." Someone should mention it to George's grieving lady friend as a way to keep him with her until they can be buried (or scattered) somewhere together.