In the most horrifying workplace mistake imaginable, a Sydney funeral home has apologised for mixing up two dead bodies and causing one family to bury the wrong loved one.
And to make matters worse, the mistake was only noticed when one of the dead man’s daughters asked for a final look at her father – only to discover he was a complete and total stranger.
Oh no. Oh NO.
Grieving widow Despina Nicolopoulos told Seven News her daughter had made the discovery at the funeral for her husband, Angelos Nicolopoulos, last Friday.
“My daughter say, ‘Mum not my father this one … another man’,” she told the broadcaster.
In fact, her late husband had been buried earlier that day, after a funeral service at a different Greek Orthodox church. The mourners at the earlier ceremony had no idea they buried the wrong loved one, reports the Greek Herald.
As it turns out, the error occurred at the Euro Funeral Services in Roselands. The loved ones – who were both elderly men – had died on the same day, and the funeral service accidentally mixed the identical lids.
“Each lid has a nameplate and it went on the wrong coffin,” funeral director Spiro Haralambous told 2GB.
“If I could turn time back to reverse this trauma, naturally I would.”
“This was an error, and unfortunately this family is now traumatised due to us not picking it up in the morning when we left our funeral home. We are guilty as charged.”
The body of Mr Nicolopoulos was exhumed, and both loved ones have now been farewelled.
Haralambous offered both families refunds, and apologised over the fact “process of healing is going to be a little bit longer than it would be normally”. Yeah… I bet it would.
