Undelivered

Mother hires attorney in quest to get her son’s ashes from funeral home

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

What Deondra Williams has endured during the last five months is more difficult than anything she experienced during 28 weeks of a complex pregnancy.

Some nights sleep wouldn’t come. There were also days when leaving her bed seemed impossible.

Her mind has constantly been on her weeks-old son, Arturio Tyler Jenkins. She hadn’t seen him since he was taken to Shands Hospital in Gainesville last October.

Complications that the infant suffered after Williams gave birth at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare resulted in the child being sent to Shands for treatment. Williams was 28 weeks pregnant when she had a C-section delivery on Oct. 20.

 Her son died 25 days after his arrival in Gainesville. From that point last Nov. 16, Williams has been looking for answers.

She’s gone public with her story about the apparent disappearance of her son’s remains. Williams said she was expecting Forest Meadows Funeral Home to cremate her son’s body shortly after it was turned over by Shands.

She’d planned to wear his ashes in a memorial pendant on a necklace, she said. She has also had to cancel a Jan. 28 memorial for her son.

“I’m hoping that I share my story in the midst of my grief and save another family; another mom, dad or parent from having to go through what I’m going through,” an obviously emotional Williams said. “Don’t know if I would ever get closure from this but I just feel like being able to share my story would give someone else the courage to come forward who may have had this same issue with this funeral home.”

Williams has hired Tallahassee attorney Anthony Thomas. He said he’s served the funeral home with notice that his firm is representing Williams.

A complaint against Forest Meadows Funeral Home was also filed with the Department of Financial Services, Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer service, Thomas said.

Part of her complaint included confusion over the child’s death certificate, Williams said. She added that her first sign that there would be a problem was when she discovered that the office of vital statistics didn’t have a record of her son’s death. Eventually a certificate surfaced with the wrong date.

Williams said she was told by a representative from Forest Meadows Funeral Home that the death certificate has been amended and it will be sent to her with her son’s ashes.

“There is a list of things that this funeral home didn’t do right, according to Florida statute and their own policies,” Thomas said.

The funeral home refused to offer a response when reached by the Outlook. A receptionist took the call, placed it on hold and returned about a minute later.

“Sir,” the voice on the other end said, “we thank you for your call but we have no comment.”

Her deceased son, who Williams affectionately referred to as “Baby AJ, would have been her sixth child. Her five other children are between ages 17 to 6, three fathered by her husband of eight years, Antonio Jenkins.

Williams said she was warned about a tough pregnancy because of a blood clot she’d suffered in one of her lungs. She was told AJ would not make it past 16 weeks but he did.

“I was doing everything that I needed to do on my side, making sure that I was taking my blood thinners,” she said.

Williams said she’d also joined a Facebook group of pregnant women who were experiencing difficult pregnancies.

With the exception of a surprising call from the funeral home two weeks ago, Williams said she’s had only brief conversations with a person twice. Both times she was promised that her son’s ashes would be sent to her.

During one of those calls, Williams said, she was told that her son’s ashes were delayed because the company’s cremation machine was broken. 

The family-owned funeral home started in 1975. There are at least two other known cases similar to Williams’ that got the company critical reviews.

Robbin Youngblood said she has had a similarly disturbing situation when the body of her infant child was sent to Forest Meadows Funeral Home for cremation. She waited almost two months before the ashes were delivered on March 6, Youngblood said.

“I couldn’t grieve properly because the part I was grieving was missing,” Youngblood said. “I was calling every week to try to get him back sooner, but it was just an excuse.

“I’ve been trying my best not to think about it.”

Williams said she just can’t let go and probably won’t even if she gets her son’s ashes, as the funeral home promised.

“I don’t even believe those are my son’s ashes at this point,” she said.