A FAILING nursing home did not inform the family of an 84-year-old resident that she had died and her body had been cremated.
Distraught son Stephen Jukes, 56, returned from a trip to Bulgaria, where he was building a house, to discover staff at Landmere Nursing Home, Wilford, had not told him his mother was dead. He said: "I phoned up to say I would be visiting her on the Sunday and the person on the phone just said 'she's dead'. That's how I found out."
His mother Mary Jukes had died three months before.
"I then found out they had cremated her at Wilford Hill and there is no plaque to mark her death. I was so taken aback by what had happened I didn't know quite how to react," said the Beeston resident. "She was supposed to be buried with my father," he added.
At the time of Mrs Jukes' death, in February 2009, the home was being run by Southern Cross.
Before Mr Jukes set off for Bulgaria he says he left written and verbal contact details with the home and he had also made it known that he was to be contacted should anything untoward happen to his mother, who suffered from dementia.
"I'm so hurt by what has happened, it was a lot to deal with," he said.
"I started drinking heavily and it was awful. I was in a bad way.
"She was given a pauper's funeral," he said.
Mr Jukes, who owns a record shop in the West End Arcade, said he started legal proceedings against Southern Cross but he had to pull out because it became too expensive to continue.
The father-of-two, told his story after the Post revealed that the care home was being investigated by the police for the alleged mistreatment of patients. No arrests have been made to date.
The home is in the process of closing down after a damning report from inspectors working for the Care Quality Commission, and Notts County Council has terminated its contract with home.
A statement on the website for Southern Cross says: "In September 2011 Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC announced that it was restructuring and that this would mean that all the care homes it operated would be transferred to other operators.
"Southern Cross is now in the process of a solvent wind down of its operations."
