In October 2014, Anthony L. Colantonio died. \u00a0\u00a0He was cremated.<\/p>\n
His third wife was the only person at his memorial service.\u00a0 She was given his cremains afterwards.<\/p>\n
About a year later, his third wife also died.<\/p>\n
Last month, a former Marine \u2013 Charles \u201cMike\u201d Gustin \u2013 found both the cremains and Mr. Colantionio\u2019s death certificate.\u00a0 They had been placed in a box; the box had been discarded in an alley, like common trash.<\/p>\n
Mr. Gustin contacted local police, but they said they were unable to help. Local sanitation workers refused to pick up the cremains.<\/p>\n
So Mr. Gustin decided he\u2019d find Mr. Colantonio’s next-of-kin himself – and offer to return the cremains to them.<\/p>\n
It turns out that Mr. Colantonio had a daughter named Tracy. However, Tracy hadn’t seen her father in 25 years.\u00a0 She’d been separated from and out-of-touch with her father since she was 6, apparently due to a divorce.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, Mr. Gustin was able to locate Mr. Colantonio’s daughter Tracy relatively quickly.\u00a0 He contacted her; she indeed wanted her father’s\u00a0 cremains.<\/p>\n
On Valentine\u2019s Day of this year, Mr. Gustin delivered Mr. Colantionio\u2019s cremains to his daughter.<\/p>\n