Ashes to ashes, dust to… thrift shop?

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This article was published 19/02/2025 (403 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Missing a loved one’s ashes? A Manitoba woman might have found them at a Winkler thrift store.

Hayley Bueckert-Dyck says she just wants to get the ashes back to their rightful owners after she picked up an urn at a thrift store Tuesday. She had hoped to use it for her recently deceased 19-year-old cat, but was shocked to find it was full.

“I’ve found a lot of interesting things in thrift stores, but this is definitely the most interesting one,” she said Wednesday.

She took the urn to Wiebe Funeral Home — which serves Morden, Winkler and the surrounding area — where staff confirmed it was an urn sold there, but they weren’t able to identify the owner. The urn has no identifying information and she is worried that if she returns it to the thrift store, the ashes will be discarded, so she’s keeping it until an owner is found.

She declined to name the thrift store out of concern it will face condemnation for having sold the urn. She said she visits regularly and believes the urn was donated quite recently.

“For all I know, this person might have just dropped this thing off this past weekend,” she said. “Maybe they haven’t had enough time to realize that it’s missing yet. I’m hopeful that someone will come forward. I’m hopeful that someone will realize that it’s missing.”

She plans to keep the urn for a while but absent a claim, she has thought about scattering the ashes in the Pembina Valley.

“If nobody comes forward, I feel like the best thing to do is to lay them somewhere where they won’t be disturbed, and they won’t be sitting in the house of some random person,” she said.

If you think the urn may be yours, contact Wiebe Funeral Home at 204-325-4201.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca