Nine times out of ten these days, if you receive a phone call it's likely to be PPI, not your son whose funeral you'd held just 11 days ago.
Eighty-two-year-old Frank J. Kerrigan was told that a body found on May 6 was that of his son, Frank M. Kerrigan, 57, who was mentally ill and had been sleeping rough.
When he asked about doing what no parent should have to, and identify the body of their child, the elder Kerrigan was told he didn't have to as identification had been made through fingerprints.
Kerrigan Senior said: "When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them.
"If he wasn't identified by fingerprints I would have been there in a heartbeat."
Credit: PA
That information was incorrect, but with no better knowledge, Frank and his family began to prepare for his son's funeral.
Carole Meikle, Frank's 56-year-old sister, went to lay flowers, light a candle, and place a photo and rosary beads at the site of his alleged death.
"It was a very difficult situation for me to stand at a pretty disturbing scene," she said. "There was blood and dirty blankets.
"We thought we were burying our brother. Someone else had a beautiful send-off. It's horrific."
Frank's brother, John, gave the eulogy at the funeral, before the burial took place 150ft from where Kerrigan's wife was laid to rest.
Father, Frank, had been to see his son in the funeral home, and had convinced himself he was looking at his son.
"I didn't know what my dead son was going to look like," he added.
Credit: PA
But then, 11 days later, Frank received a phone call from his friend, Bill Shinker. He told Frank that his son was alive, and that he was standing on his patio.
Bill put Frank Jr. on the phone, and simply said the words: "Hi Dad."
The family's attorney, Doug Easton, said that coroner's officials apparently weren't able to match the corpse's fingerprints through a law enforcement database and instead identified Kerrigan by using an old driver's license photo.
When the fingerprints were tested again, they matched someone else's.
The family now plan to sue the authorities, alleging that they didn't properly try to identify the man as he was homeless.
Coroner spokesman Lane Lagaret, said that the department apologises for "any emotional stress caused as a result of this unfortunate incident."
The younger Frank's sister, Carole, added: "We lived through our worst fear. He was dead on the sidewalk. We buried him. Those feelings don't go away."
You'd think these cases would be hard to find, but earlier this year one man's funeral was also called off... after he was found having a pint!
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Wilson Olouch had been missing for three weeks when a heavily decomposed body of a person was found in a sugar plantation in Kenya.
But, just as the funeral was about to take place, a man who looked like Olouch was spotted sipping drinks in a nearby bar.
When his family rushed over, they found him sat there. Apparently, he was too embarrassed to come home after a night out drinking that he decided to start a new life.
It's the lesser of two evils, I guess. Begin again or face the silent treatment from the Mrs. I know which one I'd choose.
Featured Image Credit: PA