Posted on 06/20/2014 6:03:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin
BARSTOW (CBSLA.com) — A Barstow mother is pleading with a thief Thursday evening to return a necklace that means the world to her.
It’s not that the necklace is filled with precious gems; it holds something more valuable. Brittany Brown’s ashes.
When the 23-year-old died of a rare liver disease in 2012, her grief-stricken mother had some of her ashes put into a necklace.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about her,” says Karen Brown about her daughter.
To honor her daughter, all of the family members got necklaces and put some of Brittany’s ashes in them.
Brown tells KCAL9′s Crystal Cruz she knows the thief didn’t know what was inside the necklace but she can’t bear the idea of not having it back.
The family is distraught.
Destany Brown told Cruz she wears her necklace every year on the anniversary of her big sister’s death.
“Every now and then I’ll think about it, and I’ll start crying because I miss my sister. I really do,” says Destany.
Another sister had a dragon necklace and put some of Brittany’s ashes in it. That necklace was on the car’s rearview mirror.
It was that necklace that was recently stolen out of the blue Honda Civic.
“It just feels like a part of me is gone. Someone took a piece of her, and I would like her back, you know,” says Karen.
Police told Cruz there have been several car break-ins around Brown’s neighborhood, and according to the Barstow police, this one is a little different because Karen’s daughter left her car unlocked.
“She knows now to lock her car at all times for everything,” says Karen. “They consider it a petty theft because it wasn’t locked up.”
It might be a “petty theft” to the police, but the necklace is a pretty big deal to a mother who just wants it back where it belongs, with their family.
It was that necklace that was recently stolen out of the blue Honda Civic.
If cremation is disrespecting the dead, then what do you call it when you hang a necklace with some of you dead sister's ashes in it on your rear view mirror?
if the ashes are in a locket type device maybe the family members can donate some of their ashes to make another necklace...
The thief probably thought it was drugs and has already snorted the ashes.
This why you don’t cremate and if you must why those ashes still need to be interred.
yeah, cause no one ever robbed a grave.
Correct. Or scatter them to the wind or sea.
Exactly. The sad truth is that whichever crack-head stole the necklace could care less about the daughter’s ashes being inside it. He sold it and bought drugs and is now looking for a way to get more money.
I’m so glad my family is against cremation (old-fashioned Catholics). I just went to visit my father’s grave the other day. Put up some flowers and placed a flag and admired the beautiful stonework, the absolutely gorgeous old cemetery and the big old tree protecting the headstone. There was a time when poor people actually used these old graveyards as parks.
I call it love. Where do you get off telling people how to grieve, when we all grieve in our own way?
When my late beloved girlfriend's cancer returned, and her doctor told her that her prognosis was somewhere between "short and less short, she made it clear that she wanted to be cremated instead of buried. I kept her ashes in a little shrine that I set up in my living room for almost a year before I and her family were able to scatter them at a place she loved.
I loved her beyond imagining. She was my true soulmate and an accomplished, internationally renowned classical musician and a pillar of the Boston classical community with a huge and loving community of colleagues, friends and former students.
I thought seriously about keeping a small portion of her ashes before the scattering ceremony. I decided not to do that. But if I had, it certainly wouldn't have been a sign of disrespect for her. I miss her every day, and still talk to her (she died 18 months ago).
Frankly, I think your comment is pretty cold.
Sounds fairly pagan to me. I apologize if I’ve offended any on this thread with my personal views on the matter.
To each his own way to remember family members I suppose, but I find this sorta creepy.
A few years ago there was a story here on FR about a pet owner who lost his beloved dog. He had the dog cremated and kept his ashes on his mantle. Thieves broke into his house, thought it was coke and tried to snort it.
Not sure if the story was true.
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