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Duty Free

Two women, who were not together but traveling at the same time to the Caribbean island nation of Sint Maarten, both died on their trips within hours of each other. Margaret Porkka, 82, was from the United States; her family asked that her body be shipped to New Jersey for burial. The other woman, also in her 80s, was Canadian. Her family asked that she not be named, and asked for her body to be shipped to Ontario for cremation. The funeral home shipped both bodies on the same airline. When Porkka’s daughter, Lisa Kondvar of Rhode Island, finally saw her mother in the casket before her burial, she was shocked. “I kept thinking, ‘Am I dreaming?’ But it wasn’t my mother.” It was apparently the Canadian woman, and calls to Canada confirmed that the family there had already had the other body cremated. Emerald Funeral Home in Sint Maarten would not let the family see the body before shipping it; her family also says the death certificate lists her as male. The government of Sint Maarten has appointed its health inspector to investigate how the switch happened. (RC/Providence Journal, Canadian Press) ...His conclusion: “All those people look alike.”
Original Publication Date: 19 January 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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