A French woman discovered her 42-year-old son had been buried in the same cemetery where she was attending her brother's funeral, after she had tried to invite him to the ceremony, a French newspaper reported.
The family was leaving the cemetery near Lille, when one of them noticed a temporary wooden gravestone bearing the son's name and date of birth in an area reserved for poor people.
"In two or three seconds, everybody started to scream," the man's father Elie Langlet told La Voix du Nord newspaper.
"Josiane (the mother) collapsed. She buries her brother and finds her kid in a grave near him. It's unthinkable," he said.
The local council confirmed the father of one, Olivier, had died on July 5 from natural causes.
Josiane Vermeersch said she had tried to contact her son a few days before to invite him to his uncle's funeral, to no avail, and had thought he was ignoring her after an argument.
"Someone hasn't done their job," she told news channel I-Tele. "I demand explanations," Vermeersch said, adding it was unbelievable in a time of modern technology that nobody had attempted to contact the family.
Citing the funeral parlor that buried the man, the newspaper said it was not uncommon for families not to be informed if there is no immediate contact address available.
French law stipulates that a burial must take place within six days of a death.
What a way to find out that a loved one is deceased- this is a nightmare that no one should ever have to experience. How disturbing it must have been to see the fresh grave of someone you thought was still alive and well- especially if it's your son or daughter.
In the U.S. we assume there's an official in most towns, like the coroner, to follow procedures to identify a body. Of course, without the proper ID, it could take a while for anyone to contact the next of kin.
If French law stipulates that they only have six days to notify relatives and bury the body, I can see how that could pose a problem. It may have taken that long for the family to realize he was even missing.
In the United States I believe that the usual time period to contact any next of kin is about 30 days. Given that a person is considered missing after 48 hours of no contact, this should be plenty of time to allow someone to be found who can claim an unidentified body.
I also understand that if no next of kin can be found, a body is still given a simple funeral. What type of ceremony varies from state to state, but no one is denied a decent interment.
Bodies donated for medical research go through an extensive process, with the school following documentation procedures like filing the proper applications, accompanied by a burial permit. Each donated body must also be properly registered by a licensed mortician, prior to use. The medical school assumes the responsibility of all the costs of transporting, registering, and preparing a body designated for educational purposes. But they don't take everyone- some are even rejected.
So in the end, we should make sure that all the necessary papers and information are filled out so that the ones left behind are not unnecessarily burdened with final arrangements, and final paperwork. It's also wise to have a living will signed and documented by a notary public, just in case- as I was reminded before I had a recent surgical procedure.
Although making plans now in the event of an untimely demise seems a bit morbid, it is really no different than any other prudent preparation. Like it or not, death is in everyone's future, so preparing for it should be as carefully decided and planned out as one's eventual retirement.
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