01 April 2007

A feel good story for a Sunday afternoon

Nine years ago Molly Schofield of Lancashire was taking her father's ashes south to London to scatter them from Westminster Bridge from which he used to fish. Unfortunately before she arrived in London the bag in that contained the urn has vanished from the luggage rack. Clearly she was very distraught but at least took some satisfaction from the fact that her Dad had at least made it to London and that the thieves would be bitterly disappointed.

Unbeknownst to Ms. Schofield the ashes had been abandoned on the Tube and ended up in the bowels of Baker Street station in the possession of Ted Batchelor, the Underground's lost property supervisor. He did his best to find out who they belonged to but failed for nearly nine years and had planned to scatter the ashes in a local cemetery if he couldn't find another home for them by the tenth anniversary.

Enter one John Fisher who saw Mr. Batchelor's appeal for help on a BBC4 programme, Arena: Underground last month. Mr. Fisher got to work on the internets and managed to track down Ms. Schofield and rang Ms. Schofield with the news a few days later.

She is obviously delighted. I hope her, and her Dad, have a happy Easter.

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