SUFFIELD, Conn. — A military family who lives in the northern Connecticut community of Suffield, had their loved ones remains lost in the mail for days and they blame it on systematic dismantling and de-funding of the postal service.
Jean Egan’s father Paul survived Pearl Harbor and her brother Scott served in the army’s Medical Corps.
"We understand duty and service. Those were words all five siblings lived by," said Egan.
When Scott died suddenly at the VA hospital on July 11th, Jean relied on the duty of the postal service to get Scott’s cremated remains to his final resting place at her sister's house in Maryland.
"On a shady hill overlooking a lake because he loved the outdoors," said Egan.
Jean paid for expedited two-day shipping, but the urn didn’t show up.
"In those 12 days we didn’t know if we would ever find my brother," she recalled.
Jean checked the tracking number and saw it left the Suffield post office on August 7th for Springfield, Massachusetts, but was never updated.
"Because of the cutbacks I learned five days later with the removal of automated equipment, every parcel had to be hand scanned. It took five days to scan my brother's remains into the system," she said.
Finally found, a devoted postal worker made the long drive to Maryland herself.
Jean said the worker, "Rang my sister's doorbell and placed my brother's remains in my tearful sister's arms. She apologized for the delay and thanked my family for our service to this nation."
Jean's sister thanked the postal carrier for working overtime.
"The postal worker said there’s no need to thank me ma’am and there is no overtime. I came here on my own because we didn’t want you to have to wait for your brother any longer. I was just doing my civic duty."
Jean's brother was found and delivered 12 days later with the help of Senator Richard Blumenthal.
"I think the postmaster general owes the Egan family an apology. And he ought to do it right now," said Blumenthal.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who testified before congress Friday, has been blamed for drastic financial cuts and dismantling automatic mail sorting machines.
One of those machines now sits in pieces in Hartford.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said, "How are you going to make them work again. You have to get these back online right away so that the postal service can do its job."
Jean said she doesn’t want any other families to go through what they did.
But the truth is families across Connecticut are right now waiting on prescription medication, social security checks, birthday cards, and plenty of other delayed mail.