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After detour through St. Petersburg thrift store, cremated remains bound for family

 
Published July 31, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — Sorting through piles of incoming donations a few weeks ago, workers at the PARC Thrift Store came upon a box they knew would never be slapped with a price tag.

About the size of a lunchbox and sealed with a strip of clear tape, the white cardboard container bore a sticker with two palm trees and a brief description: Cremated Remains of Walter H. Hardin.

The effort to unravel the mystery, and find Mr. Hardin a proper final resting place, began.

Word of the find got to Don Koma, owner of Abbey Affordable Cremation & Funeral Services in Largo, who reported that a friend and neighbor of Mr. Hardin's handled the arrangements after he died on May 27, 2014 at the age of 96.

A widower, Mr. Hardin had little to no contact with his family, Koma said. So Marie Ouellette, who lived near Mr. Hardin in a modest, 55-and-older condominium complex in Kenneth City, paid $501 for his cremation and death certificates, Koma said.

"No one wanted to come forward and do anything, so she said she'd do it," he said.

When word got to Koma that Mr. Hardin's remains had turned up at the thrift store operated by PARC, a St. Petersburg non-profit that serves disabled adults and children, he called Ouellette. According to Koma, Ouellette had moved out of state and somehow the remains were left among items she had arranged for PARC to pick up.

Koma said Ouellette told him she didn't want them back.

Reached by the Tampa Bay Times on Friday, Ouellette sighed into the phone.

"I don't have anything to talk to you about," she said, and hung up.

According to his death certificate. Mr. Hardin was a self-employed machinist. His two-sentence obituary in the Times said he was survived by a son, grandson, and great-grandchild. An even shorter notice in the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia said there would be no service, "per his wishes."

His wife Irene's obituary offers more clues. The retired nurse died in 1997, shortly after moving to St. Petersburg from South Charleston, W. Va. The couple had a son and a grandson, Walter Jr. and Walter III, who live out of state. They could not be reached Friday.

PARC employees who had started their own research to track down family got help when Bay News 9 aired a story and someone who recognized Mr. Hardin's name provided more information, said chief advancement officer Jackie Dryden. PARC was able to reach members of Mr. Hardin's extended family, and the remains will be hand delivered to them soon, Dryden said.

She declined to identify the family members or where they live but said they're "very pleased" to be getting the remains.

"You always want someone to be with their loved ones, during life and after death, and PARC is honored we could be a vehicle in this sad situation," Dryden said.

She added a friendly reminder.

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"Gifts are certainly appreciated and really do further our mission, but you may want to take a second look at what you're donating before you go down that path."

Times news researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Contact Tony Marrero at tmarrero@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8779. Follow @tmarrerotimes.