For Kenneth Thomas’ family, mourning the 19-year-old’s tragic death has been compounded by a painful error at the Houston-area funeral home handling his cremation. Thomas, a Black teenager from Texas, was killed during a robbery in Houston’s Fifth Ward in August. In an effort to keep a part of him close, his family requested that the funeral home preserve locks of his distinctive hairstyle as a keepsake. When they finally received the hair weeks later, however, they were crushed to realize it wasn’t Thomas’.
The discovery left the family not only heartbroken but questioning the integrity of the services they had trusted to honor their loved one. “That was the only part of him that we decided to keep, to keep him alive. We don’t have it, and it hurts,” said Lakisha Johnson, Thomas’ cousin. The hair held special significance for the family, especially for Thomas’ twin, who had hoped to incorporate the locks into his own hair as a tribute.
Tanya Roberson, the owner of Oasis Funeral and Cremation, admitted to the devastating mistake. She explained that the misplacement of Thomas’ hair likely happened during recent construction at the facility. “I take accountability for the issue that happened,” Roberson said, emphasizing that despite every effort to maintain care, “sometimes things still slip between the cracks.”
In the wake of the error, the family’s confidence in the funeral home’s handling of Thomas’ remains has been shaken. They are now uncertain if the ashes they received are truly Thomas’. “It makes us question everything, even his ashes,” Johnson shared. “Is this really him in this urn? We need to know that. Because if that’s not him in the urn, who is it?”
Despite Roberson’s reassurances about the ashes’ authenticity, the family’s grief has been exacerbated by the incident, leaving them struggling with both sorrow and lingering doubts. They are now navigating not only the loss of a young life but also a painful uncertainty around the memento that was meant to help keep his memory alive.
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