Wrong remains sent to ‘exhausted’ Canadian family after death on Cuba vacation

Faraj Allah Jarjour of Laval, Que. died suddenly in Cuba on a family trip, and his children say the wrong remains were sent back to Canada from Cuba.

A grief-stricken family in Laval, Que., is searching for answers after their father’s remains never made it home from Cuba — and a heartbreaking mistake brought another man’s body to Canada.

The Jarjour siblings were on a family vacation down south last month when their 68-year-old father Faraj Allah Jarjour suddenly died. He suffered a heart attack while swimming in the ocean on March 22.

Miriam Jarjour was in the water with her dad and screamed for her brother to help. CPR was administered after their father was pulled from the water, but there was no doctor on site.

The family had to wait for nearly an hour before a physician arrived and confirmed his death. The siblings said it took hours for emergency services to take their father’s body from the beach.

“We’re sad because my father died,” Karam Jarjour said. “But we’re more sad because my father is we don’t know where.”

They quickly had to make arrangements to bring their father home, involving a trip to the Canadian consulate in Varadero. Miriam Jarjour said they were told they couldn’t bring him on the family’s departing flight, so they made the painful trip back to Quebec without him.

Miriam Jarjour says she followed the instructions given by the consulate and paid $10,000 to repatriate her father’s body. She then spent another $15,000 in costs for an eventual funeral.

“Up until now, I’ve paid $25,000 for nothing,” Miriam Jarjour said.