The manager of a Simply Self Storage facility in Taylor, Mich., is seeking help from a Facebook group to place the ashes of a veteran that were recently discovered in one of the facility’s storage units. The remains are of James Taylor, who was born May 7, 1923, and died June 27, 2012, in Dearborn, Mich., according to a copy of the cremation record.
The storage manager contacted his friend, Jeff Kerekes, an administrator for the Downriver and Friends Facebook group, a community that supports businesses and residents of Downriver, Mich. After posting information about the situation on the website, Kerekes received help from other members. Some have gone door to door seeking information while others have sought help from cemeteries that honor veterans.
"Downriver and Friends is just awesome, and they even surprised me this time; they were all over this,” Kerekes told the source. “It's like we all know him now. You'd like to hear the story about him because he could be a well-decorated vet; we don’t know. We don't have any stories.”
The Great Lakes Cemetery has agreed to accept the ashes if no family comes forward.
"James actually was a veteran, and we haven't been able to find his family. We don't know what happened to his wife or the rest of his family, so it's a shame,” Kerekes said, adding he’s hopeful someone will claim the ashes.
Simply Self Storage owns or manages 192 self-storage facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico. Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., its properties comprise 14.9 million square feet of storage space.
