Durban -
A heartbroken Newlands East widow is making a desperate appeal for help in finding an urn, containing her late husband’s ashes, stolen during a burglary at her home.
Mavis Williams, 74, returned to her Marble Ray Drive home after an afternoon outing on December 30 to find it had been ransacked and a safe, containing important documents and the precious urn, had been stolen.
For the past 27 days, she has been living in hope that whoever has the urn will get an attack of conscience and return it.
Williams was married to Garvis, a prominent Newlands East taxi owner, for 54 years. He died in May at the age of 78.
She said her son’s father-in-law had died and she had guests staying over from December 27 to 29 for the funeral.
Because she was depressed after the funeral and alone at home, her daughter, Janine, took her out for lunch on December 30.
“When we came back home at 5pm my dog was sitting on the pavement. My driveway gate was partially open. I figured something was not right. The front door was kicked in,” she said.
“The house was ransacked and my TV and DVD were stolen. The burglary took 15 minutes, according to a CCTV camera on the roadside that captured the getaway car.”
Williams said the safe was bombproof and only opened with a combination code and she had hoped the thieves had not opened it.
“With the visitors arriving, I decided to put the urn in the safe to protect it from any accidental breakage. Now it’s gone (along) with valuable papers. Two duvets and pillows were also missing, which I think they used to carry my stuff,” Williams said.
“Since the incident, I console myself knowing that God is in control of my life. He knows what’s going to happen next.”
Pleading for the return of the urn, she said: “Leave it in my post box or at the Newlands East police station.”
The urn has the initials and surname GE Williams and her husband’s date of birth, “05 03 36” written on a small plaque on the lid.
Newlands East police are investigating a housebreaking. Anyone with information can contact Detective Constable Gazu at 079 500 0146 or Williams at 031 577 6173 or 072 798 2725.
Daily News