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Family nearly buries the wrong body

Death Mourning Coffin

Relatives who identify deceased loved ones should be composed, Bishop of Tamassos Isaias said on Tuesday, after a family in Limassol carried out a funeral for the wrong person.

The unprecedent mistake took place on Friday when the funeral home which undertook the ceremony for an elderly person in Limassol had asked the family to identify the body before its preparation for the funeral service scheduled later that day.

The son of the deceased, carrying a photo of his father, visited the morgue of the Limassol general hospital for the identification. Other relatives but also employees of the funeral home expressed doubts over whether the body belonged to the specific person.

However, the son insisted that the body was that of his father and that some of his characteristics were altered due to health problems.

After the funeral was carried out at a church in the district, the body was taken to the cemetery for burial, when the relatives decided to open the coffin. When they saw the body again, they realised that it was not their deceased loved one.

The family informed the funeral home about the mistake, and they received the body of their loved one which they buried on the same day.

Commenting on the incident that caused additional distress for two families in Limassol, Bishop of Tamassos Isaias told the media the funeral home is not responsible, since employees had suggested that it might be the wrong body.

The priest advised relatives to undertake the identification only if they are composed enough to do so.

“A person who is not distressed should go for identification because in his confusion, crying, and distress, the person made a mistake,” he told AlphaNews.

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