The ashes of Barbara Kirkendall were returned to her family Friday after they had been lost in the mail after her death on Nov. 5, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The Dispatch reports that Kirkendall's ashes were supposed to arrive in Columbus, Ohio from Cleveland on Saturday for a funeral service that was to be held on Wednesday and Thursday, but the ashes were lost in the mail. The ashes were mistakenly transferred to a facility in Michigan and returned to her family Friday morning.
“We are so excited,” Barbara Sammons, Kirkendall's daughter, said to The Dispath. “You have no idea how relieved we all are.”
According to another article by The Dispatch, Kirkendall died of a blood infection, which was described as aggressive and unstoppable.
Norman Kirkendall, Kirkendall's husband of 61 years, said before the ashes were found he had difficulties sleeping.
“I feel like I’ve lost her,” he said at the time.
The U.S. Postal Service searched all throughout Ohio and neighboring states for the ashes, U.S. Postal Service spokesman David Van Allen said.
"We made a promise and we delivered on that promise,” he added.
The family plans to bury Kirkendall's ashes in Dayton, Ohio after the weekend.