A man’s poignant tribute to his late dad backfired slightly when he ended up ‘getting drunk’ and losing the ashes – much to his mum’s frustration.
Stan Blade, 39, had wanted to take his dad for ‘one last trip to the beach’ and planned on making a TikTok video of himself visiting rides at Southend, Essex, with the ashes of father Stephen Jewitt, who died in 2011 at the age of 60.
Stan, who still appears to be under the influence in the clip, recounts what happened here:
However, he ended up bumping into a group of old friends and ended up on an impromptu nine-hour pub crawl.
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Blade only realised his mistake when he returned home to his step-mum Emma Hopkins, who asked: “Where is your dad?"
“She was not pleased with me at all, and I do not blame her,” he said.
Blade stumbled in after drinking six cans of Stella and five pints of lager in some of the local pubs, having misplaced the shopping bag containing a wooden box containing the ashes.
Hopkins had previously told him he couldn’t take the ashes out of the house, but Blade really wanted to give his dad – who sadly died from complications of alcohol abuse – a good send-off.
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The musician continued: "My dad was a really funny bloke and he would have absolutely loved the idea of me riding a roller coaster with his ashes by my side.
“He had a good sense of humour, so I just wanted to do something to pay tribute to that as I haven’t visited my hometown in a while.
“The idea was to take him to the beach and go on the bumper cars and get an ice cream, you know all the stereotypical things you do at the beach.
“But I ended up bumping into friends and getting drunk along the seafront."
Blade had to retrace his steps to try and find the ashes – including to Chinnerys, The Cornucopia and a hotel bar on Marine Parade – but no one had seen them.
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Having last seen the remains of his dad near Adventure Island on the seafront, Blade has now made a TikTok appeal at @stanstoks for information about where they could be.
The video, titled ‘missing person’ and made the same night of his mishap, sees Blade explaining what happened.
"I convinced my step-mum to do a TikTok,” he says.
"I thought it would be funny - put him in the dodgem cars, put him in the big wheel, give him a kiss-me-quick hat and a stick of rock and stuff.
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"She didn't want me to do it but I did it anyway."
When asked if she was ready to see ‘the funny side yet’, Hopkins, 49, replies: "Not really no, I've f**king had those ashes for 12 years.
"I told you not to take them to the seafront. All you want to do is do things on TikTok."
Blade said if his dad’s ashes aren’t found soon, he will report them missing to the police.
Featured Image Credit: SWNSTopics: UK News