Two well-meaning business owners have learned that claiming a body for burial is not as easy as it sounds.

Gordon French, who owns the Easton 1602 Pub in Harbour Grace and Pauline Yetman who owns the Route 66 Diner and Pub in Carbonear had joined forces to bring Randell Crane’s remains back home to Harbour Grace to be laid to rest next to his wife.

Crane’s name is among a list of 25 others whose remains have yet to be claimed by family for burial.

French remembers Crane as a patron of the pub many years ago and calls him a genuinely nice man. French and Yetman were so moved to learn that a local resident was left in limbo they decided to join forces to raise funds for a proper burial in his home town, but Yetman says, it’s not as simple as that.

“He should be brought home and buried with his wife up in the cemetery,” says Yetman “…the reason for the list of people that are on this unclaimed bodies list, is due to families not claiming them due to financial matters or mental illness. The paperwork is very difficult apparently, and not just anybody can go and claim this body.”

She says the standard procedure is to start with a spouse and then move down the line of relatives.

In this case, Randell Crane has family and they’re waiting to see what their next steps should be. In the meantime says Yetman, they’re going ahead with a fundraiser at Route 66 this weekend.

She told the Tim Powers Show on VOCM that she’s spoken to Slade’s Funeral Home in Carbonear and they’re willing to work with them, but there are other costs associated with laying a person to rest, including grave diggers, clergy and other “odds and ends.” She’s hoping enough money is raised to help another woman to “come home.”