The mystery of Aunt Mary. I worked in Barrow, Alaska for all of the nineteen nineties. I loved it there. I worked in medical records and sometimes took a lunch time shift at the front desk taking walkins etc. One of the elders came and she did not look well. She died four days later. There is no coroner or funeral services in Barrow. The body must be shipped to Anchorage. In a week or so the casket is returned and the family views the body in the back hallway by ER in front of a two drawer morgue. In due time the casket arrived. The family arrived. The casket top was opened. That was not Aunt Mary. It was the body of an old black woman from North Carolina. Oh dear what happened. That casket was returned to Anchorage. In about a week Aunt Mary was returned. The family came for the viewing and left satisfied. The casket to be transferred to the Presbyterian Church. One of the nurses was heard to murmur rather sadly, "You know, Aunt Mary never traveled that much when she was alive."
