#Texas family stunned to find stranger in grandfather’s casket at funeral

A Texas family got quite the shock when they opened the casket at their grandfather’s funeral — and found a stranger inside, according to a local report.

Relatives of Natividad Torres Cordova, who died of pancreatic cancer in May, told KPRC-TV they had asked Santana Funeral Directors to dress their loved one in his favorite Mexico soccer jersey.

“I went up to the casket to tell him, ‘I love you,’ before anybody came in,” recalled Cordova’s daughter, Maria Vasquez, “and [I] was touching the wrong person, with [my] dad’s clothes.”

“They ruined everything,” Vasquez said in tears.

The family, stunned and upset, confronted employees of the funeral home, asking them where Cordova was, the Houston TV station reported.

“It almost felt like a really mean joke,” said son Natividad Cordova Junior.

It took nearly two hours to retrieve the correct body, but he was not prepared for the service.

“To say our last goodbyes to our father, it was supposed to be perfect,” said Susana Montelongo, another daughter of Cordova.

“Instead of having good memories of a perfect funeral for our father, because he deserved the best, we [had] a nightmare.”

Funeral Director Arnold Alanis told the station he felt sorry for the Cordova clan, but wouldn’t address the incident in question.

“We strive real hard to make sure the family’s needs are met,” he said in a statement.

“Once in a while, there might be an issue with a family but we’re not at liberty to discuss that,” Alanis added. “I feel sorry for them, they’re in grief right now with loss of a loved one.”

The company gave the family a refund. However, the relatives said it wasn’t enough, adding that funeral home staffers didn’t show any compassion or remorse over the error.

“The director literally rushed out, left us there to handle everything on our own,” Vasquez said.

She said the family is now looking into taking legal action.