As the old saying goes, ‘everyone grieves differently’. This statement was truly taken to an entirely different level, when an Alaskan woman embarked on a road trip through The Last Frontier, with her dead husband.

The unnamed husband, from Prince of Wales Island, passed away from natural causes in late July of this year (he was reported to be 78 years of age after all), was in a basic aluminum transport casket, and placed in the pack of a pickup truck, to be sent to the mortuary in the area; however, his wife, hand other plans.

Instead of heading to that mortuary, the elderly woman took her late hubby on a road trip along the Alaskan south coast. At approximately 3:15 a.m., the Wednesday following his death, the Ketchikan police department picked up an anonymous call, from in-and-around Potlatch Bar. When the police made it to the scene, they found the transport casket, still in that same pickup, with the deceased husband in place, and packed ice around the back end of said pickup truck.

Chief of Police for Ketchikan, Alan Bengaard stated that while the husband was supposed to have headed to the mortuary, his widowed wife decided to forgo the idea, and she had been driving him around for a couple of days, with an idea to give him a ‘rolling wake or viewing’. According to the Chief, the wife had stopped at some canneries during the drive, to grab ice, and filled the truck with it, to help keep the body cold.

MSN reported that the wife was not charged, as she technically did not break any laws. Still, once the body was found, the mortuary was able to take custody of it after the police were involved, and now they wait for the arrangements the family has made, in terms of transport.

The underlying motive behind why the elderly woman decided to take her husband on this road trip along Alaska’s southern coast is unknown. Perhaps the duo had always wanted to take a trip of this sorts, and never got around to it. Which then goes along with another old saying, ‘better late, than never’.