Let me firstly address that my parents aren’t very cleanly people. They’ve been hoarding electronics for years. Some of the piles in their home stack to the ceiling. They’ve got trash everywhere. It’s horrifying. Especially for someone with OCD like myself. 

Today my mom called and asked if I’d take my Grandma and Uncle’s urn because she was having trouble finding a place for them. Hmm, sounds about right. Considering there’s barely anywhere to sit in their house. 

I agreed. She stopped by today and dropped off the urns. First thing I noticed while I was standing in the driveway talking to her was that the urns were so sticky. Only god knows what the sticky crap was all over them. I ignored it the best I could, and went inside. 

Immediately I grabbed alcohol wipes and started wiping them clean. Second thing I noticed was the ridiculous amount of cockroach shit. I mean- it was EVERYWHERE. My grandma’s urn has a picture of her taped to it. As soon as I peeled it back, BOOM. Loads and loads of cockroach feces and legs. 

My skin was crawling. I did my best to clean off as much as I could. That’s not even the worst of it. There’s a small lip on the top of her urn that was exposed. All I could see was more and more feces. I didn’t want a cockroach infestation in my home, so I had my husband crack it open. There it was. My grandma’s ashes sealed in a plastic bag. Not only was it her ashes. It was also home to plenty of dead cockroaches. Hundreds.

What do I do? I don’t want to pull my grandmas ashes out of the urn, but I also don’t want these cockroaches in my home. It’s so frustrating that my mom let it get this way.