Please tell me this can't be true!

[JaffaCake70]

My Mum visited this afternoon, we were talking about wills and things that the departed have left in trust for their loved ones. During the course of the conversation Mum told me the following:

When my Grandmother passed away a few years ago at the age of 82, my Mum's older Sister wanted her wedding ring (for sentimental reasons).

When my Auntie went to collect the ring the undertakers gave it to her and told her that it had been stuck on my Nanna's finger so tight that they had cut her finger off in order to retrieve the ring.

I feel sick. Please please please tell me that this can't possibly be true? Has anyone else had experience of anything like this? I just can't believe it's true.. but if it's not true why would my Auntie, who isn't one for making things up, say it is?

It was cut off ie the ring not the finger

My dad passed this weekend, the ring was stuck. The FD managed to get it off but he said if he couldn’t the ring would be cut off not the finger at the funeral home.

There are actually businesses out there to assist undertakers with ring removal!

https://www.ringrescue.com/funeral-services-industry

I wouldn't have thought a ring would be stuck because a dead person is kept cold. If you want to get a ring off you make sure your hand is cold. I think this is just made up by the aunt!

Perhaps this was said, to stop you from wanting the ring. It's cruel, but it is possible.

It sounds to me like the funeral director was joking, surely?!

Information directly from a funeral director, "Firstly try good old washing up liquid. Or then try wrapping some cotton around the finger, then slide the ring over the cotton and unravel it from the other side and the cotton pushes it off."

Unfortunately not all undertakers are respectful.
we lived next door to a gentleman who worked for our local undertaker, when it swapped companies and new management came in he left and went to work for a different one… he never disclosed details but did say he never felt they were very respectful with the bodies… Needless to say that when my grandad died and the hospital said he’d be moved to our nearest funeral directors we were very quick to call them and say NO! We had his body moved to where our neighbour worked and he was very kind and came along and spoke to us for ages.
So I would say that if your aunt wanted the ring and had expressed this wish then if cutting the finger off was the only way of retrieving the ring then yes they might have just done it… quite why they told the aunt though is another matter..
Please remember this was just her body, when we die we often require an autopsy and we are cut open, ribs cracked apart, skull possibly opened to study brain, organs removed and studied etc… so in the grand scheme of things a finger removal is nothing…. And we are only going to either be cremated or decay anyway.

Cutting the ring damages it and maybe they’ve had complaints before, cutting it is only ok if it’s just going to be melted down and made into something else.

Again, a digit would NOT be cut off under ANY circumstances!
I don’t entirely disagree with the part of your post about some funeral directors being disrespectful…(in the minority it has the be said..very strict codes of practice in my industry)
However, the hospital where your grandad passed away - it didn’t have a mortuary?if that’s the case, you let them know your preferred FD and arrangements are made to collect the deceased.
You do have instances where a person passed away in the community unexpectedly and sometimes they will be transferred to a FD who has the local coroner contract temporarily before being picked up?

He is in the wrong profession if he was

more likely he never said it and it’s been misinterpreted

That is exactly what happened. No stones as they melted. The metal was sifted through and collected. Given to us in a bag. I think the undertaker remembered during cremation.

I did take it to be shaped into a new ring. It had to be cleaned, melted and polished.

please don’t doubt a true but horrible story.

My husband used to be a Funeral Director so I've just asked the question, I'll get back to you.

My husband used to be a Funeral Director and in all the time he worked there fingers were never cut off, they used to put string around the finger and pull the ring off, I'm so sorry you were told this, that's outrageous and I hope he was joking, bad joke all the same.

whilst i certainly believe you! I do think that doubting or at least being skeptical of some stories you read in the internet from anonymous posters is no bad thing

Post mortems are not in my experience the awful scenario that one would imagine; the one I attended was in every aspect very respectful to the deceased gentleman.