A Yulee woman is on a heartfelt mission to reunite a man’s ashes with his family after discovering them in an unexpected place.
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Nicole McClain, a former employee at a Yulee thrift store, found an urn keychain containing the ashes of a man named Mark Johnson while sorting through donations.
Now, McClain has been tirelessly trying to track down Johnson’s loved ones for the past three months.
She discovered the ashes while going through a box of donated items. Initially, she thought the small container was a pill case, but upon closer inspection, she realized it held something much more personal: the ashes of a man who had passed away in 2020.
“I was going through the box of donations, and at the bottom, I pulled out this little container. I thought it might be a pill case or something, but then I found out it was ashes… the ashes of a man named Mark Johnson who passed away in 2020,” McClain said.
Determined to return the ashes to Johnson’s family, McClain has used social media and other methods to try and locate them. However, her search has come up empty. “I just left it on my calendar as a reminder, but I forgot about it for a while. Then I remembered, I really need to find his home. This isn’t where he belongs,” she said.
Despite the challenges, including the fact that “Mark Johnson” is a common name and there are no clues about where he lived, McClain has continued her search. The urn keychain does provide some information: Johnson was born on February 25, 1966, and passed away on March 29, 2020, at the age of 54.
“I’m going to hold onto it for a while, keep it on my calendar, and say hi to him every morning. I’ll just figure out what to do next,” McClain added.
For McClain, the mission is about more than just returning the ashes—it’s about giving Johnson’s family the closure they deserve. “It’ll just feel really good to return this to his loved ones,” she said.
Nicole McClain is urging anyone who may know the family of Mark Johnson to reach out and help bring the ashes back to where they belong. If you have any information, you can contact McClain or Action News Jax to assist with this emotional journey of reconnecting a man’s remains with his family.
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