Photo Courtesy of Hunter Funeral Home
Losing a parent is already a devastating process, but compound that loss with a funeral home mistaking someone else for that parent, and it takes grief to another level.
That’s exactly what happened to two sisters in North Carolina after the women opened their mom’s casket and another woman was dressed in their beloved mother’s clothes.
The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald reported that Jennetta Archer and Jennifer Taylor discovered the horrifying error after viewing their mother Mary Archer’s body at Hunter’s Funeral Home in Ahoskie, North Carolina, on September 7. Mary passed away on August 31.
Upon discovering the gaffe, the sisters informed the funeral home of the egregious error, and employees denied they made a mistake– as if Archer and Taylor didn’t know what their mama looked like.
According to Archer, the funeral home “insisted that it was.”
“Ultimately, the decedent was then removed from the viewing area, and ‘the swap’ was quickly made. My mother was then brought out for viewing,” Archer told the publication.
Archer disclosed to the news outlet that the business still hasn’t adequately apologized or acknowledged the family’s pain.
“Unfortunately, to date, we never received an apology from Hunter’s Funeral Home to acknowledge that such an egregious error had been made. We were deeply disturbed and disappointed by this experience,” she said.
“I wake up every night with this on my mind,” Taylor explained. “It’s upsetting. I’m hoping for answers to our questions and hoping this doesn’t happen again at any funeral home. I can’t have peace until I have some closure from the funeral home.”
A funeral home employee maintained that the family was given an apology.
F. Garry Lewter took responsibility for the mix-up, said he apologized to the family. He added that Howard Hunter III, the funeral home owner, also extended an olive branch to the sisters over the blunder.
Lewter blamed the ghastly mistake on the two deceased women having the same color casket. He also claimed the women looked alike.
“I dressed the one I thought was Mrs. Archer and then found out it was the wrong person when the family arrived for the private viewing,” Lewter told the News-Herald. “At that point, I prepared Mrs. Archer in the dress the family had provided and presented her to her family.”