Family Says Funeral Home Mixed Up Veteran's Ashes
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GRAND PRAIRIE (CBSDFW.COM) - A grieving family in Grand Prairie claims a funeral home in Colorado ruined what should have been a perfect ceremony for an Army Veteran.
Last Friday a service was held at DFW National Cemetery for 71-year-old William Pugliese. Everyone in attendance including a military honor guard believed the urn at the service carried his remains.
It wasn't until after the service that Ramona Pugliese, the veteran's sister said she discovered the urn at the service belonged to someone else. She made the realization after reading a different name on the cremation certificate that came with the urn.
"I freaked out," she said.
The funeral home at the center of the error is Romero Family Funeral Home in Pueblo, Colorado. The late Pugliese was living in Pueblo at the time of his death.
The funeral home administrators sent Ramona Pugliese a letter apologizing for their mistake, and they refunded the cost of the cremation. They also tracked down the veterans urn and sent it to North Texas just as soon as they found it.
The funeral home's gesture to right their wrong was something considered too little -- too late -- for the grieving sister.
"They made an error a human error. A terrible error. An error that should have never been," said Ramona Pugliese.
Today another ceremony was held at DFW National Cemetery with the correct urn and remains of William Pugliese.
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