Now, there are a few occasions in life where a mix-up would be acceptable.
1) When you say farther instead of further
2) When you hand in your Literature homework to your Science teacher
3) When you confuse Amy Adams for Isla Fischer
And there are some occasions when it is completely unacceptable.
1) When you call your partner by your ex’s name
2) When you write accept instead of except
3) When you cremate the wrong body
S’pore Funeral Home Cremates Wrong Body Due To Mix-Up
The family of Kee Kin Tiong, a man who passed away at 82 years of age, were waiting to receive his body at their void deck on 30 Dec, where a Taoist wake would be held for him.
His funeral was overseen by Harmony Funeral Care, a funeral home.
However, due to a mix-up, Kee was mistakenly sent to the Christian funeral of a 70-year-old man and later cremated at Mandai Crematorium.
It is believed to be the first reported case in Singapore of a wrong body being cremated.
What happened
The two bodies were lying in the same room at Hock Hin Undertaker, a business started by the grandfather of Harmony Funeral Care’s funeral director, Miss Harmony Tee.
According to The Straits Times, the funeral home said the mix-up was caused by a male employee who collected Mr Kee’s body by mistake from the embalmer.
How exactly does one collect the wrong body by mistake?
The errant employee made this mistake even though he reportedly told Kee’s family that he had verified the body through facial recognition.
Denied access to CCTV footage
Mr Kee’s son-in-law, who wanted to be known only as Mr Ho, said the family requested to see CCTV footage at the undertaker premises and the time of collection, but Ho claimed that the funeral home told the family that the CCTV footage from that time period was not there.
Hmm.
The employee has since been suspended.
Kee’s family have made a police repor and are waiting for the results of the investigation by the police and National Environment Agency. They have also sought legal advice.
“Very regretful”
As you can imagine, this mix-up has caused Kee’s grieving family even more pain.
“We feel very regretful that because of this incident, our loved one had to leave this world on his own, without anyone from his family to send him off,” said Mr Ho.
“According to our beliefs, it is required that the deceased’s body be allowed to ‘rest’ for a minimum of three days before it is cremated. We weren’t even able to do that for my father-in-law, because of what happened,” he said.
Kee’s granddaughter said “We are sharing our story because we hope the funeral industry can improve their service standards. This has caused us a lot of pain, and we really hope no other family will go through a similar situation.”
Let’s hope this never happens to another grieving family.
Harmony Funeral Care has since been suspended from using government after-death facilities until it can prove it has taken measures to prevent a repeat of such a situation, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Saturday (4 Jan).
