The victim of the mistake was Vivian Fairley, who died on May 30 at the age of 54. The funeral took place on the scheduled date, but another woman was lying in the coffin, which the survivors had no idea about.
Everything surfaced only at the funeral of 78-year-old Steller Williams, who died on May 31, and whose family revealed just before the ceremony that Mrs. Vivian was in the coffin. The survivors of both families immediately got together to complain about the confusion, but were met with a heartless response from the funeral home.
“They treated us like we didn’t know a member of our own family,” complained Daphne Ballard, a cousin of the deceased Vivian, according to People magazine.
The funeral service then tried to blame the hospital, which also immediately turned out to be a false accusation. Both women died elsewhere – one in a hospice and the other at home.
“We paid for a funeral to say goodbye to her, but she didn’t get to see it,” Ms. Ballard continued. Another relative said that confusion should never happen because the bodies of the deceased have tags.
Only when the funeral home’s claims became untenable did its employees fully acknowledge the mistake and apologize. The body of Mrs. Steller was exhumed and both women were properly buried.
