Beloved husband & dad is mourned, but it's not his body in the casket

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Philadelphia Daily News

On Monday night, Roberts' wife, Janie Holsey, and others went to check the body at James L. Hawkins Funeral Home, and told a female employee: "This is not my husband."

But family members said the woman at the South Philadelphia funeral home insisted: "That's how they look when they die."

She was "so nasty," pushing us out of the funeral home, said Rhonda Wearing, 52, the oldest of Roberts' three daughters.

So yesterday morning, Roberts' wife, eight children and three stepchildren stood for two hours greeting nearly 200 mourners inside Tindley church, at 742 S. Broad St.

"I touched him," Wearing said. "We kissed him. Some of us thought it was him."

The director, whose name was not available, said: " 'I'm sorry, it was a mix-up,' " said Wearing. "That was a hell of a mix-up."

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/ho...he_casket.html