A 78-year-old woman, whose health problems meant she travelled little while alive, has become a jet setter in death. Vera Anderson has fulfilled her dying wish to tour the world after her son Ross arranged to send her ashes to more than 250 cities worldwide. Total strangers have taken her wishes to heart, organising burial ceremonies and simple send-offs in far-off corners of the world.Vera's ashes have entered the stream in front of the Royal Castle in Stockholm, Sweden. They have toured Thailand, been to Malta, and dusted the snows of both the Earth's poles. (...)
He packaged them in sealed plastic bags, added a note asking its reader to find a nice place for the ashes, and sent them to the head postmaster in the main post offices of the capitals of all 50 states as well as capitals of every country. (...)
Soon people began sending back pictures and letters detailing what they had done with the ashes. The Aymara Indians held a burial ceremony for them at Lake Titicaca in the Andes. And a nun at a South American orphanage now considers Vera Anderson her guardian angel. The ashes were sprinkled along the Choo Praya River in Thailand, on the Alabama state capitol grounds in Montgomery and within sight of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. (...)
NB This is an old story (2001), but I think it is still interesting.
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Update: This is also a post for the link-up about Travel hosted by Mary.
I think this is a very nice project!
ReplyDeleteIt is. I'd had never thought in doing a similar thing!
DeleteYes, this is a lovely story and I'd like to have my family do that for me. Or just send me to Paris, my favorite city, for one last time!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about that point, but still I love this story.
DeletePaulo Coelho has just told me the story of Vera. My illness will perhaps keep me alive for a few more years. But when I leave this world, I will think of Vera's wonderful story.
ReplyDelete