Exclusive: Family upset after claiming wrong person was put in their loved one’s casket
Careless and unapologetic is how Georgia Robinson describes the services and employees at People’s Funeral Home on Farish Street.
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - On November 3, Georgia Robinson says she and the rest of her family showed up at the wake for their loved one, Mary Jean Robinson. However, that’s when Georgia immediately noticed something was wrong.
“Once we got in there and signed the books and everything, we were walking down to view her body, and I knew something was kind of off. I could tell that it wasn’t her from far back,” Georgia said.
The family says, even more shockingly, that the person lying in the casket was wearing the clothes and jewelry they bought for their loved one. (WLBT has seen the images, but we are choosing not to show them out of respect for the other family.)
“No ma’am, this is not my sister. This is her casket, this is the outfit that we brought her, this is the jewelry that we brought her, and I said these are her flowers, but I didn’t know who that is in the casket,” Georgia said. That’s when she says she demanded to speak with the director of the funeral home.
“We’re telling him about the mistake, and he was very rude and very uncaring. He had an attitude with my son. [He] told us that we were going to have to pay for everything all over again.”
Georgia says the funeral home eventually met some of their demands, including buying new clothes for Mary Jean, but never switched out the casket.
“I told him not to put anything on my sister that was on that lady,” Georgia said. “He put the earrings on her anyway.”
She admits this entire ordeal has taken a toll.
“I feel terrible. Just to think, if we had a closed casket, we would have ended up burying someone else’s loved one instead of ours,” she said.
3 On Your Side reached out to the funeral home for a comment.
James Stewart, one of the directors, told us he couldn’t confirm or deny that the mix-up happened but says the family told him they were pleased with their services.
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