Father’s Ashes Safely Returned to India

One of the more unusual yarns to emerge from the strike involved a customer of Mail Boxes Extra in Garden Grove.

Owner Sam Beik said the woman needed to send the ashes of her father back to his native India. She desperately wanted to know if the aluminum box containing the remains could be shipped overnight.

The woman feared there was no substitute for UPS, but Beik reassured her and arranged to have an international shipping service pick up the delivery and whisk it off, airport-to-airport.

“Our customer was thrilled with the results, and the relief that she didn’t have to rely completely on UPS was evident,” he said.

Beik said the U.S. Postal Service and Federal Express helped to pick up slack for him during the walkout. He said his FedEx driver was able to pick up many more packages than usual, although the cost for his customers was much higher.

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E. Scott Reckard covers workplace issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com