NH Widow Relieved Husband's Lost Ashes Were Found
NORTHWOOD, NH (CBS) - Allison Kelley says she feels her husband's soul inside what was to be their dream home in Northwood, New Hampshire. "The past four years we worked to restore it," she said. Now, she's about to move in without Chuck Eber. He died of a heart attack August 3rd. But his widow's heartbreak grew greater last week, when she attempted to fulfill one of his wishes. "The last time we were down in Key West, we went fishing and he was sitting on the rocks and the sun was setting and he said this is, this is heaven when I die this is where I want my ashes," she recalled.
Allison sent her husband's ashes to his daughter in Port St. Lucie, FL. The family planned to then go to the Keys to spread them. But when the box arrived, it was open and the urns were missing. "I dropped to my knees. I really did. I was devastated," she said.
She waited and worried until her phone rang Tuesday around noon. "I was actually shopping at Hannafords when I got the phone call saying that they had found the urn. The people at Hannafords think I'm crazy because I started screaming they found him," Allison said. The urns were discovered in what Allison described as a mail recovery center in Atlanta. "I'm just so thankful and thinking I can move on now I can do what he wished and I don't have to feel bad about it," she said. "It was the only thing that I knew that I needed to do for him and I felt like I really failed him in that."
She and her son will leave Sunday and meet his children in Florida. The family plans to drive to Key West and make his wish come true. "We'll spread his ashes and say a few words...and then we're going to go to a tiki bar and have cocktails in his honor," she explained.
Allison isn't angry and says she doesn't plan to further investigate how this happened. "I don't care. Chuck went on an adventure as far as I'm concerned," she said. She sent the package without using express service or registered mail which is recommended by the postal service. But as a small business owner, she says she's shipped 9,500 packages over the past five years, with only one prior problem. She's just thankful this is all coming to an end. "I really thought I was going to have to learn to live with this and I'm just so thankful that that's not the case," she said.
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