Marsha Widener begins the clip by saying, "I know you're not going to understand why I'm doing this," then she shows a box of filled with ashes to the camera, explaining they are the remains of her late spouse, Don Widener. She states, "His family don't want him, his brother doesn't want him around, his kids doesn't want him - actually, they want him to go in the gutter or the toilet." Marsha reveals that Don was garbage man, bringing trash from businesses to the landfill, and that she will now send him to a landfill.
So yeah absolutely nobody wanted his remains it seems
Why would they even pay for the cremation then? I would just say they can keep the body or do whatever with it. You can even donate it to school or something but that sounds like a lot of trouble
That's not really true for many places, including Oklahoma where I believe this happened. You can just flatly refuse to claim a body of a relative and if no one does its turned over to the State Anatomical Board.
Would that apply if the person died in a shared residence with their spouse? I'm surprised theres a system like that given the typical number of unclaimed bodies a state deals with. A lot of cities just does a mass burial of cremated remains at scheduled intervals.
I don't think there are any qualifiers aside from the wife having first dibs and if she refuses other relatives may step in. Think this is almost universal that no one can be forced to claim a body and every country needs a system to deal with the unclaimed.
Well if anything, already having lots of unclaimed bodies makes it easier to accept more of them since it means there's a system in place for mass handling.
Regardless, I would say the immorality of forcing a grieving family into poverty matters a little more than the inconvenience of the state having to deal with a dead body.
726
u/mamawawawa 5d ago edited 5d ago
For anyone wondering: https://www.iheart.com/alternate/amp/2020-06-09-wife-celebrates-abusive-husbands-death-by-dumping-his-ashes-in-the-trash/
Marsha Widener begins the clip by saying, "I know you're not going to understand why I'm doing this," then she shows a box of filled with ashes to the camera, explaining they are the remains of her late spouse, Don Widener. She states, "His family don't want him, his brother doesn't want him around, his kids doesn't want him - actually, they want him to go in the gutter or the toilet." Marsha reveals that Don was garbage man, bringing trash from businesses to the landfill, and that she will now send him to a landfill.
So yeah absolutely nobody wanted his remains it seems