Mum's lost ashes returned thanks to eagle-eyed workers at Thurso recycling site – did late relative help guide granddaughter from beyond the grave?

A Thurso restaurant owner has praised the sterling efforts of recycling workers in the town after they helped reunite him with a priceless locket containing his mother's ashes.

Brian Gordon is chef/owner of Bydand Restaurant and Covid not only took his uncle from him in November 2020 but also his mother, Isabel Smith Gordon – nee McLachlan, soon after, aged 78.

"My mother had to say goodbye to her brother by watching a Covid funeral via an iPad while she was self-isolating in a residential home," said Brian.

"Little did we know that less than three weeks later she would be taken from us. She was a fit and sprightly woman who loved people, venturing to concerts, cinema, hairdresser, shopping etc – nothing held her back. Although her home was in East Kilbride, she loved Thurso and would spend several weeks a year living with myself."

After Isabel passed away, Brian purchased a plot in Thurso cemetery and deposited her ashes there. However, he kept a tiny amount in a small glass and metal pendant around his neck. "I felt as her future memories had been cut short, I wanted to carry her with me to share my life experiences."

Last week, Brian's daughter, Sarah Malcolm, asked for his help to move an old living room suite to the Thurso Recycling Centre. They loaded it into a Transit van and took it to the depot where it was placed in a large compactor.

"As I work in hospitality, I felt it best to go for a shower again prior to heading off to work," Brian recalled. "To my horror, mother was missing, only the neck chain remained. I looked at the floor beneath me, backtracked through my home, my drive, my car – nothing. My heart sank. I phoned my daughter to check her garage, where the suite was collected from, and her driveway – nothing."

Brian decided to drive back to the recycling centre with the "slim hope" that maybe it was torn off there whilst lifting the pieces of suite above his chest. On arrival, he found that his daughter and wife, Angela, were already at the site and talking to staff member Steven Imlach.

"Steven remembered us dropping off the suite and also remembered sweeping up a small metal object from the ground and placing it in the compactor about an hour previous. On explaining what this was he immediately contacted his manager, Kenny Gow, at the Seater site and they closed off the landfill container there and then so nothing further could be added.

"The next morning the container was disconnected from the compactor and driven to Seater landfill site, closely following behind was myself, my wife and daughter. On arrival at Seater the staff had cleared an area within the large recycling shed and slowly dropped the contents of this huge container across the concrete floor."

Brian said the workers – Colin Gunn, Graham John and Malcolm Simpson – "were amazing" and pulled masses of waste across the floor to siphon through it. "It was literally like looking for a needle in a haystack." But as he gazed upon the tons of compacted waste before him, Brian said he felt his initial optimism about finding his mother's ashes was quickly diminishing.

"I had been warned that the compactor compresses with eight tonnes of force and had been compacted several times since my visit so to expect it may not have survived.

"Steven at the Thurso site had been thinking about it through the night and believed he dropped his sweepings into the compactor shortly before a large blue carpet was placed in. With this information, we concentrated our search in this area. We could not find it there and kept moving forward."

Then a mysterious event occurred. Brian's daughter Sarah said she could hear her granny in her head saying "look under the watch". There was a broken silver metal watch and on lifting it out the way, there was Isabel's ashes – to their surprise and delight she was fully intact.

"I cannot express my gratitude enough to all the Thurso and Seater staff. How fortunate are we to live in a county where the local authority staff will go above and beyond to help a member of the community to be reunited with his mother," said Brian.

"They really deserve recognition for all the effort they made for my benefit."

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