SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- A Springfield man has been reunited with his late mother’s ashes after a Facebook post from a local trash removal worker drew hundreds of likes and shares and connected the two men within hours.

Joseph Lavoie lost his mother in 2023. In the years that followed, he said her husband had possession of the ashes and the family had been trying to reach him to have her remains buried with her parents. “Her husband had the ashes and we were trying to get a hold of them for a few years, just trying to get them buried with her parents and whatnot,” he explained. “And we lost contact with him over the years and just haven’t been able to get a hold of him.”

This past Wednesday, a worker with a trash removal company posted a photo of several urns to Springfield’s open forum on Facebook. The worker said the urns had been discarded as part of a job in Granby. The post gained hundreds of likes and shares.

When Lavoie saw the post, he recognized one of the urns as his mother’s. “And I’m seeing my mom’s urn right on the screen in a garage somewhere,” he said. “So I posted, ‘These are my mom’s ashes. Please connect.’ and we were able to connect the same day and obtain the ashes.”

Lavoie said unanswered questions remain, including how the urn ended up in a garage in Granby, but he said his relief currently outweighs his concern. He also expressed gratitude toward the trash removal worker who made the post. “I hope that he knows just how special of a person he is to really have done that and when he really didn’t have to,” he noted. “And it’s amazing that there are people and I think, for the most part, most people are like that. It’s just that we don’t hear about it as much.”

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